





'"1^1 






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LIBRARY €r CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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THE AMERICAN MERINO: 



FOR WOOL AND FOR MUTTON. 



A Praotio&l Treatise on the Selectiot. Care. Beeedhstg aud 
Diseases oj" the Merino Sheep 



4LL SEGTIOHS OF THE DHITED STATES. 



BY 

STEPHEN Lowers. 



+ ... 



IlLUST BAT ED. 



.1> 



G^. 





NEW YORK: 

0. JUDD CO., DAVID W. JUDD, Pees't, 

751 BROADWAY, 

1887. 






Entered, according^ to Act of Coi^ress, in the year 1886, by tlie 

O. JUDD CO., 

In the Office of the Libraiian of Congress, at Washington. 



CONTENTS. 

Letter of Request — - '^ 

Letter of Presentation ^ 

Chapter I. 
From Spanish to American - - H 

Chapter II. 
Form --- ^2 

Chapter III. 
Fleece ----- -- - '^'^ 

Chapter IV. 
Blood --- ^^ 

Chapter V. 
Breeding ^'^ 

Chapter VI. 
Feed 59 

Chapter VII. 

Pastm-e in the West ^^ 

Chapter VIII. 
A Mutton Merino '^^ 

Chapter IX. 
Lambing --- ^^ 

Chapter X. 
Care of Ewes and Lambs ^^ 

Chapter XI. 
Tagging, Washing, etc ^^^ 

Chapter XII. 

Shearing and Doing Up Wool-- -.115 

Chapter XIII. 

Summer Management - -1^ 

Chapter XIV. 
From Grass to Hay - -.-.138 

Chapter XV. 

Selection and Care of Earns. .. - -142 

Chapter XVI. 

The Breeding Flock --1^5 

Chapter XVII. 

Sheep Houses and Then- Appurtenances - 165 

Chapter XVIII. 

Winter Management -. - - - 1 • • 

V 



VI CONTENTS. 

Chapter XIX. 
reeding for Mutton 189 

Chapter XX. 
From Hay to Grass ..^ 200 

Chapter XXI. 
Fodder for Sheep. .203 

Chapter XXII. 
Systems of Sheep Husbandry _ .209 

Chapter XXIII. 
Systems of Sheep Husbandly (Continued) 222 

Chapter XXIV. 
Systems of Sheep Husbandi-y (Continued) - 234 

Chapter XXV. 
Systems of Sheep Husbandry (Continued) .251 

Chapter XXVI. 

Systems of Sheep Husbandi-y (Continued) i .264 

Chapter XXVII. 

Diseases of the Merino— 'Taperskin " 277 

Chapter XXVIII. 
Parasitic Diseases (Continued) 287 

Chapter XXIX. 
External Parasites 301 

Chapter XXX. 

Diseases of the Feet ...316 

Chapter XXXI. 
Diseases of the Respiratory Organs 324 

Chapter XXXII. 
Diseases of the Alimentary System 328 

Chapter XXXIII. 
Blood Diseases 338 

Chapter XXXIV. 
Diseases of the Nervous System 345 

Chapter XXXV. 
Diseases of the Urinary and Reproductive Organs -- 348 

Chapter XXXVI. 
Miscellaneous 353 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

Mr. G. B. Quinn, the President, and Mr. J. G. Blue, the Sec« 
retary, of the Ohio Spanish Sheep Breeders' Association, ad- 
dressed a communication to Mr. Stephen Powers, in which 
they said ; 

Office of the 

Ohio Spanish Merino Sheep 

Breeders' Association. 

Cardington, Ohio. 

The breeders and owners of Merino Sheep find they 
are called upon to master new and, in many cases, fatal dis- 
eases not spoken of by the celebrated writers, Randall and 
Youatt. Among the writers on the Merino of to-day, we think 
some one should present to the public a practical treatise, which 
shall discuss the present management, diseases and breeding of 
Merinos and sheep of different bloods, comparing their merits 
in our States and Territories. We think the present magnitude 
of this industry demands - * * * the proper education of our 
shepherds and flock-masters in all the new diseases of Merinos 
which have been developed during the last decade, and in the 
older ones which yet, in some instances, infest our flocks. 

The Ohio Spanish Merino Sheep Breeders' Association, by 
their President and Secretary, would respectfully request you, 
at your earliest convenience, to condense your ideas on this 
subject into a suitable volume, to be printed and presented to 
the public for their enlightenment. You have perhaps observed 
the need and demand for such a volume, properly written and 
illustrated^ to be placed upon the market for the thousands of 
flock-masters of to-day. 

Should you comply with this request, and should it be pos- 
sible for you to give your time continuously to the volume until 
completed, we think the sheep fraternity of our country, and all 
who are interested, will freely patronize your work and appre- 
ciate your labors. 



(7) 



g THE AMERICAIS' MERIN^O 

MTo Powers replied as follows : 
Messrs. Geo. B. Quinn and J. G, Blue. 

Gentlejmen: — Together with your kind letter, inviting me to 
prepare a book on our National breed of sheep, I received a 
copy of the Register of your Association, containing a record of 
several hundred pure-blood flocks owned mostly in Ohio — a 
work carefully edited and printed, and substantially bound. 
Nothimg could afford more convincing proof than this elegant 
volume, of the solidity and the prosperity of your ancient call- 
ing in our State. 

I have undertaken to do what you ask, and offer you here- 
with a work on " The American Merino." I tender it modestly 
and without comment, except the simple remark that my task 
has been conscientiously performed, and that it is based on 
years of personal experience in sheep husbandry. 

"While it would be presumptuous in me to say that the volume 
herewith tendered to yourselves and the pubhc, fully meets the 
requirements of modern shepherding in the United States, it is 
not too much to aver that our great industry has outgrown the 
manuals heretofore published. 

Since the learned work of Dr. Randall was given to the 
world, the American Merino has not only crossed the Missouri 
and ascended the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, but has fol- 
lowed the dusty wagon- trail of the emigrant to California, where 
it attained a larger and hardier form and a new acclimation ; 
and, starting out thence afresh, north, south and east, it over- 
spread the whole mid-continent. With a scholarly pen this 
distinguished author traced the development of the American 
Merino to the banks of the Mississippi ; but the traits and needs 
of that great new branch or type of the race, which may be 
called the California Merino — the "rustler," as it is termed in 
the expressive vernacular — were httle understood by him. 

The work of Mr, Henry Stewart is invaluable to the American 
breeder of the English races, with their long category of special 
wants and ailments ; but it would hardly be claimed, even by 
the candid and painstaking author himself, that it is fully 
abreast of the advance of the Merino in the Far West. 

The present may seem to be a dark day for the breeder of 
Merinos, but the American future of this great race, potent 



FOR WOOL Al^^D MUTTOi?-. 9 

from "long descent," is as well assured as that of the continent 
itself. In 1865, the Boston price of fine wool was one dollar and 
two cents per pound ; of coarse, ninety-six cents. In 1885 the 
number of Merinos in the world is at least one hundred per 
cent, greater than then, while the number of coarse-wools 
(owing to the actual decrease in England) has increased very- 
little, if at all. Yet to-day, the Boston price of Merino wool is 
thirty-four cents, and of coarse, it is thirty cents. 

In spite of the enormous increase of Merinos, their wool is 
proportionately higher than it was then. 

Even in 1866, before the tariif was increased, the actual an- 
nual revenue from the Merino sheep of the United States was 
two dollars and sixteen cents ; from the mutton-sheep of Eng- 
land, one dollar and seventeen cents. 

The breeder of the American Merino should not for one 
moment allow himself to be discouraged, if he is a good shep- 
herd. He can abate much, and yet make more money than the 
flock-master of other lands. 

Vermont, the mother of the American Merino, gave to Ohio 
and the West, a sheep incomparable in the whole world as a 
producer of wool ; and which has well fulfilled its destiny in 
our younger civilization. Let it now be the work of Ohio, of 
your Association, and kindred societies in other States, to give 
to America what the disciples of Daubenton created at Ram- 
bouillet : the farmer's sheep, a "mutton Merino," presenting in 
itself the best attainable combination of flesh and pelage, which, 
as a writer in the Breeders^ Gazette happily says, ' ' stands ready 
for a partnership arrangement with any domestic animal or any 
sort of crop the farmer may choose to cultivate." 

Against a National race of such a type^ the American Govern- 
ment can never afford to enact hostile legislation. 

While it is yours, gentlemen, to labor for the accomplishment 
of this highly desirable result, and to preserve in your several 
Registers that pedigree so highly valued by the breeders, let it 
be mine to give in the following pages, as well as I may, the 
present condition and directions for the rearing of the Merino. 

Stephen Powers. 



THE AMERICAN MERINO, 



CHAPTER I. 
FROM "SPANISH" TO ♦'AMERICAN.'* 

There are two etymologies given for the word "Merino." 
One, put forth in the biography of Consul Win. Jarvis, and 
adopted by the Ohio Register, traces it to two Spanish words 
meaning "from over the sea." The other, upheld by E. Ollen- 
dorf, a writer in the Breeders' Gazette, and some others, would 
derive it from Merino, the designation of a certain royal officer 
of Spain, years ago; one of whose functions was the assign- 
ment of their respective pasture grounds to the mountain sheep 
{Serranos), and the migratory sheep (Trans-humantes). 

Mr. Seth Adams imported the first pair of Spanish Merinos to 
the United States for breeding purposes, in 1801, bringing them 
from France to Dorchester, Mass. In 1807 he became a citizen 
of Wacatomica (now Dresden), in Ohio, and brought with him 
twenty-five or thirty sheep, the descendants of this pair. He 
continued to breed them for several years, under the very dis- 
couraging circumstances which attended pioneer life in those 
days, but finally sold out the flock and moved to Zanesville. 
Though this importation was of great benefit to Ohio and also 
to Kentucky (the first pair Mr. Adams sold in Ohio was to 
Judge Todd, of Kentucky, for fifteen hundred dollars), yet the 
stress of pioneer life was too severe, and there are not now 
any descendants of it positively recognizable. 

The credit of the first traceable importation, therefore, be- 
longs to Col. David Humphreys, who brought from Spain to 
Derby, Conn., in 1803, twenty-one rams and seventy ewes. 
But this now celebrated flock would have been lost to recorded 
history, too, though not to the blood and stock of the country, 
had it not been preserved by the one ewe bought by Stephen 

(11) 



X% THE AMERICAN MERINO 

Atwood. A Humphreys' ewe and a Heaton rara, in the hands 
of this noted and careful breeder, alone preserved for modern 
registers the blood of this large and choice flock. 

Still, for a time, Merino sheep were wonderfully papular. It 
is recorded that President Madison wore, at his inauguration in 
1809, a coat made from wool grown on sheep from Col. Hum- 
phreys' flock, and a waistcoat and small clothes made from the 
Livingston French flock, of Clermont, N. H. Four lambs were 
sold in 1810 from the Livingston flock, at one thousand dollars 
each, and Col. Humphreys is said to have sold two pairs of 
Merinos at three thousand dollars a pair. (It should be borne 
in mind that one dollar then, represents at least two now). Col. 
Humphreys sold his half-blood Merino wool at seventy-five 
cents a pound; three-quarter-blood at one dollar and twenty-five 
cents; and his full-blood at two dollars a pound. 

Accordingly, very large importations of Merinos began to. 
arrive. Mr. Albert Chapman states that, in the years 1810 and 
1811, one hundred and six vessels arrived at various ports of 
the United States, bringing in all, fifteen thousand seven hun- 
dred and sixty-seven sheep ! Of these, the vast majority were 
Merinos from Spain; and of the latter, it is considered probable 
that the greater number were purchased by that indefatigable 
patriot. Consul Jarvis. • 

It is not certainly known from what cabanas, or flocks, in 
Spain, Col. Humphreys selected his purchase, nor does it appear, 
that he considered it a matter of importance. Mr. Atwood 
said, in 1864, ** The original Humphreys' sheep were, in color, 
lighter than my present flock," while those imported by Mr. A. 
Heaton, " were short-legged, dark and heavy-wooled." 

The principal flocks of Spain from which Merinos were 
brought to America, were Infantados, Paulars, Escurials, Neg- 
rettis, Montarcos, Guadaloupes and Aguirres. It has generally 
been believed that Col. Humphreys selected his sheep from the 
Infantados, while Consul Jarvis bought from all the other flocks 
above named, except Infantados. 

Col. Humphreys mentions that a ram bred on his farm cut 
seven pounds and five ounces of washed wool. Mr. Jarvis says: 
"From 1811 to 1826 ****** my average weight of 
■wool was three pounds and fourteen ounces, to four pounds and 
two ounces — varying according to keep. The weight of the 
wool of the bucks was from five and a quarter pounds to six 
and a half pounds, in good stock case, all washed on the sheeps 
backs." _, 



FOR WOOL AJ^D MUTTOI^. 



13 




14 THE AMEBIC AK MERIITO 

Many acrimonious controversies have been waged by the 
partisans of the different flocks in the United States, as to their 
respective merits and their purity. It is now acknowledged by 
the authors of the Ohio Register, that we probably have no pure 
sheep of any one of the above named celebrated cabanas in 
America; they have all been more or less mingled. But we 
have, perhaps, a million pure American Merinos of undoubted 
Spanish descent; and this one fact, which alone is of practical 
importance, should satisfy every breeder of this great and 
ancient race. This, I take it, is the true purport of the follow- 
ing sentence (p. 28) in the American Register, of Wisconsin : 
" The imperfect records of the Spanish Merino sheep, from their 
early importations until 1860, have been such that an absolute 
certainty is an impossibility, but the march of progress has 
been so grand, and the improvements so great, that any imper- 
fections that may have stained the blood of those early breed- 
ers, does not and cannot stain the blood of to-day." 

The Paulars were undoubtedly one of the handsomest flocks 
in Spain ; the wool was compact, soft and silky, and the surface 
not so much covered with gum. The Aguirres had more wool 
about their faces and legs than either of the other flocks. The 
wool was more crimped than the Paular, and less so than tho 
Negretti, and it was thick and soft. They were short-legged, 
round and broad-bodied, with loose skins. The Negrettis were 
the tallest sheep in Spain, but were not handsomely formed ; 
the wool was somewhat shorter than the Paular, the skin more 
loose and inclined to double ; many of them were wooled well 
on the face, and on their legs down to their hoofs. All the 
loose-skinned sheep had large dewlaps. The Guadaloupes were 
rather large-boned, but not handsome ; wool thick and crim- 
ped ; skins loose and doubling ; generally more gummy than 
any of the other flocks. The Escurials were about as tall as 
the Paulars, but slighter, and their wool not so thick ; they 
were plainer than the Negrettis and Aguirres, and not so well 
wooled on the faces and legs. The Inf antados were the largest 
and most popular flock ; their lambs, like the Paular, often 
have a hairy coat when born ; a mark of a good shearer. The 
Paular lambs often have butter-nut-tipped ears at birth. A 
black lamb is oftener yeaned from the Paular strain of blood, 
than any other ; but the best-informed shepherds nowadays, do 
not consider a black lamb any evidence of impurity of blood, 
though the color itself is objectionable. 

"When Col. Humphreys first began to sell pure Merinos, the 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTOK. 15 

price did not generally exceed one hundred dollars per head; 
but, as we have seen above, they afterward commanded en- 
ormous prices. This was in consequence of the embargo and 
the war of 1812, during which, full-blooded wool at one time, 
brought two dollars and fifty cents a pound, (two dollars even 
as far west as Marietta, Ohio). But after this war closed there 
was a disastrous collapse; many pure Merinos were sold for one 
dollar a head; and many of the best flocks of the country were 
sold and dispersed. The extensive importations of Consul 
Jarvis also contributed to this cheapening. 

This country, therefore, owes an inextinguishable debt of 
gratitude to that plain, simple man, Stephen Atwood, who, 
with an abiding faith in the future of this breed of sheep, in 
1813 paid one hundred and twenty dollars for a full-blood 
Humphreys ewe, and in 1819, bought five more of the same 
descent ; and with this little band as a foundation, breeding to 
Humphreys rams until 1838 (after which he could find no more 
that w;ere pure, and was obliged to depend on his own), for 
more' than half a century, whether wool was up or do wn^ tariff 
or no tariff, he kept his small flock together on his small farm, 
and bred it so pure that, in this day of many Registers, and of 
much "crookedness," the very highest warrant that C£in be 
given any sheep is, to pronounce it a "straight Atwood." 

His first fleece from this noted ewe, shorn in June, 1814, was 
three pounds and nine ounces. That he was a progressive 
breeder appears from the fact that, in June, 1857, he cut from 
a ram of the same blood, nineteen pounds and eleven ounces, 
though the same animal, next year, with another owner, yielded 
thirty-two pounds. Eecent investigations by the Ohio Register 
leave it doubtful whether this ewe of Atwood's was a Paular or 
an Infantado, They also show that Atwood was less careful in 
his records than in his breeding, and that the present blood of 
the American Merino is much purer than its recorded pedigree. 

While Mr. William Jarvis deserves the highest praise for the 
indomitable energy, perseverance and sagacity, which led him, 
as Consul to Lisbon, amid the conflicts of the Napoleonic 
wars, to gather up the wrecks of the ancient flocks of Spam, 
and dispatch ship-load after ship-load to America ; yet he ranks 
below Mr. Atwood m the singleness and steadfastness with 
which the latter held to his purpose and practice of breeding 
for fi^f ty years. Mr. Jarvis put on his farm at Weathersfield^ 
'Vt., three hundred sheep of the Paular, Aguirre, Escurial, 
Montarco and Kegretti flocks. According to the Spanish cu^ 



16 THE AMEEICAK MERIKO 

torn, he bred each of these separately until 1816 or 1817, when 
he mixed them together. In 1826 he committed the mistake of 
crossing with the Saxony Merinos, a mania for which was at 
that time over-sweeping the country. But this country is in- 
debted to Mr. Jarvis for most of the admirable Paular blood it 
has received ; and there were men who bought of him pure 
Spanish Merinos, and who were not swept away by the Saxony 
mania which passed over the country. To him, ultimately, we 



Fig. 3.— MERINO EWE. 

are indebted for the fine flock of the Messrs. Rich, of Vermont, 
which has been a prolific mother of Western studs. Mr. Chap- 
man says, with the fervor of a strong partisan: "Let us all 
especially revere the memory of Thurman and Charles Rich, 
whose firmness and judgment were not shaken, and who have 
left unto their heirs and the land, the goodly heritage of the 
Rich flock, without even a smell or rumor of Saxony upon its 
outermost skirts." 

At this point I will present a sketch of a Paular Merino ewe, 
figured in the Albany Cultivator, December, 1840, of which the 
owner says, " Her form at any rate is genuinely MeHno,'" though 
he complains further on: " Still it must be acknowledged that 
the Merino, compared with the improved breeds of sheep, is an 
ill-formed animal." 



FOE WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 17 

By way of contrast, I give next a group of two ewes of the 
American Merino, owned by G. B. Quinn, Esq. , Brown's Mills, 
Ohio. {See Frontispiece.) 

The greatest breeder America has yet produced, Edwin Ham- 
mond, of Vermont, now appeared upon the scene, to give that 
improvement to the Merino form, which the contributor to the 
Cultivator had sighed for. Before Hammond, there was only 
the Spanish Merino ; after Hammond, there was a truly Amer- 
ican Merino. 

We may believe that this great specialist began with about 
such material as that figured above ; for " Old Black," which he 
bought of Atwood, in 1849, is thus described by Mr, Randall : 
"He was long, tall, flat-ribbed, rather long in the neck and 
head, strong-boned, a little roach-backed, deep-chested, moder- 
ately wrinkled ; his wool was about an inch and a half long, of 
medium thickness, extremely yolky, and dark-colored extern- 
ally ; face a little bare, and not much wool on shanks. He did 
not possess a very strong constitution." He weighed about one 
hundred and thirty-five pounds, and cut about fourteen pounds 
of wool, unwashed. This was certainly not very promising 
material. 

I would not, if I could, trace Mr. Hammond's wonderful 
career through all the intricacies and niceties of his art. He 
developed ultimately three lines, or sub-families, in his flock — 
"the dark or Queen line," "the light-colored line," and the 
"intermediate." The best sheep of his flock were, almost in- 
variably, produced by crossing between these lines. 

But we may profitably trace a few of his foot-steps, as they 
are imprinted on the records. "Old Black" lived nineteen 
years, attesting the vigor created by Atwood's open-air shep- 
herding ; but Hammond soon found (or created) better material. 
His own ram, " Wooster," bred in 1849, weighed only one hun- 
dred and five pounds, but_sheared nineteen and one quarter" 
pounds, unwashed. He served three hundred ewes when he 
was a year old ! He was compact and short-legged; head short 
and thick ; very wrinkly ; wool about two inches long. " Old 
Greasy," bred in 1850, weighed one hundred and ten pounds 
and cut twenty-two pounds. " Old V/rinkly," bred in 1853, 
weighed oiieliundred and thirty pounds and sheared twenty- 
t hree poun ds. In breeding, next, from *' Little Wrinkly," Mr. 
Hammond suffered a backset in weight of fleece, though his 
wool was very fine and even. But " Sweepstakes " (1856) went 
up to o ne hundred and f orty pounds in weight of carcass, 



18 



THE AMEKICAK MEKIlirO 



and twenty-seven pounds in fleece. In this noble animal, 
perhaps" tlip art of the master reached its culmination; he 
united in himself the blood of the three lines, and is believed to 
have produced more scoured wool in one fleece, than any other 
ram which Hammond ever owned. 

•'Young Matchless" was a model of compactness, strength, 
and symmetry ; had immense constitution, and did more than 
any other ram to impart the short, thick, round carcass so con- 
spicuous in the American Merino; while "Long Wool" im-^ 
proved the fleece above any other, perhaps, especially in length. 
But "Sweepstakes" combined both or all these excellences, 
and transmitted them to his progeny. 

Mr. Hammond died in 1870, but the year 1856, which marks 
the birth of " Sweepstakes," may be assumed as the starting- 
point of the American Merino. In 1861, Mr. Randall instituted 
certain measurements of carcass on a ram and three ewes of his 
flock (which was of the Hammond blood) ; and a few of these, 
with the Austrian figures reduced to English, will be of interest 
here as showing the points in which the American Merino is an 
improvement over the Spanish. 





1 


5 


1 

1 




11 


, Infant ADO. 
Eam.^ 


lbs. 

104 

73 

100^ 
70 

122 
114 
12-3 
100 


ft. in. 

1 lOi 
1 10 

1 lU 
1 9h 

10 
10 
10 

11 


ft. in. 

5 8 

5 4i 

5 7* 
5 4 

3 n 

3 m 

4 
3 11 


ft. in. 

5 2h 

4 m 

5 U 
5 2 

4 41 
4 4i 
4 3 
4 01 


ft. in. 

7i 


ilwe... 


7 


Nbgeetti. 
Kam 


7i 


Ewe 


6 


American. 
jjam 


9 


Ewe 


8 


Ewe 


8 


Ewe 


8 



From these figures we learn the almost incredible fact that, 
while the Spanish Merinos were nearly two feet longer in all, 
and a foot longer in the neck, they weighed from twenty to 
twenty-five pounds less, and were not so broad across the hips 
by about two inches ! Tlieir fore-legs were also six or seven 
inches longer than those of the American Merino J 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON'. 19 

Livingston gives the weight of the unwashed Spanish fleeces 
at eight and one half pounds for the ram, and five pounds for 
the ewe. Even in Randall's day, the American Merino un- 
washed fleeces were nearly double these weights. 

In Spain, the best rams yielded only about six or eight per 
cent, of their weight in wool ; in America, about 1844, it had 
increased to fifteen per cent. ; and in 1861, Hammond's celebrated 
ram, *' Twenty-ouieT^er Cent." had increased the proportion to 
the figureswhich gave him his name. There were forwarded 
to the Paris Exposition, American Merino fleeces (twenty-one 
rams, forty-six ewes), of which the per cent, of wool, to live 
weight for the whole, was 22 ; of the best thirty, 25.2 ; of the 
best six , 30.1^ of the best one, 36.6 . 

With this notable improvement in compactness of form, and 
wool-bearing capacity, there has been no deterioration in the 
fineness of the fiber, but, perhaps, the reverse. Youatt gave as 
the average diameter of the Merino wool-fiber in his day, one- 
seven hundred and fiftieth of an inch ; of Saxony wool, one- 
eight hundred and fortieth of an inch. In 1878, measurements 
of wool made in Vermont, as stated by Hon. Henry Lane, of 
that State, showed rams' fleeces with a fiber of the diameter of 
one-nine hundred and thirty-fourth of an inch ; and ewes' of 
one-one tnousand and fifth of an inch. 

But it may well be questioned whether sheep yielding such a 
fine fiber as this, and such an enormous percentage of wool to, 
live weight, are desirable ; they are generally lacking in vigor.. 
The best shepherds are beginning to acknowledge that the hot- 
house forcing of the American Merino's wool-bearing aptitude, 
has been, in many instances, carried too far. Thus, in report- 
ing the annual "State Shearing" of Vermont for 1885, Mr. ^ 
Albert Chapman says: *'It will be remarked that there is a j 
falling olf in the weights attained by rams and ewes one year 
old, a very good indication that our breeders are becoming con- 
vinced that the forcing system to attain large size and heavy 
fleeces the first year, is neither desirable or profitable, and the 
gains in the mature sheep show that slower development tends 
to much better and larger improvements in the end." 

In the percentage of scoured wool, per fleece, there has been, 
perhaps, a slight improvement over the Spanish, in the great \ 
mass of American Merinos and high-grades throughout the coun- \ 
try ; but the enormous development of yolk, under the housing I 
and other artificial treatment of the stud flock, has tended to / 
prejudice the breed in the rainds of njany. caref ul conservatiye / 



THE AMEBIC AI^ MERIITO 

wcol-growers. I have the authority of Messrs. Coates Brothers, 
of Philadelphia, for saying that fleeces have been shorn in this 
country which yielded only twelve and one-half per cent of 
pui-e wool. In 1876, " Patrick Henry," bred by L. P. Clark, of 
Vermont, yielded a lieece of thirty-seven pounds, which turned 
out nine pounds and ten ounces of clean wool, or twenty-six 
per cent. " Bascom," owned by Capt. J. G. Blue, of Carding- 
ton, Ohio, once gave a fleece of twenty-nine and one-quarter 
pounds, which scoured nine and one-quarter pounds, or thirty- 
one and six-tenths per cent. 

The heaviest known fleece yet cut from an American Merino, 
was one of forty-four xoounds and four ounces, which was 
yielded by " Buckeye," a ram owned partly in Huron County, 
Ohio, partly in Michigan, at the " State Shearing" of the latter 
State in 1884. 

For detailed histories of noted breeders and their flocks, the 
reader must consult the voluminous registers of the various 
National and State Associations. But there are a few items, 
which may be given here as landmarks in the progress of the 
American Merino. While the written or printed histories of 
the Adams, Humphreys, Heaton and Jarvis importations are 
practically lost, owing to numerous transfers, the flock of 
C. S. Eamsey, Castleton, Vt., has an unbroken traditional 
record from the Humphreys' importation to the present time. 
In 1809, Israel Putnam, of Marietta, Ohio, bought of Seth 
Adams some full-blood Merinos, and founded a flock, which 
was continued by his son, L. J. P. Putnam, substantially to the 
present time, but without registration. June 13, 1811, Dr. In- 
crease Mathews, of Putnam, Ohio, bought an Infantado ram 
and two ewes, just imported into Alexandria, Va., and had 
them brought in a wagon to his farm in Ohio, where he kept 
up a pure flock until about 1850. In 1811, Col. Humphreys sold 
a ram for sixteen hundred acres of Ohio land to Paul Fearing 
and B. I. Gihnan, of Marietta, Ohio, and this ram was brought 
on and laid the foundation for a flock which was kept up many 
years. In 1826, Col. John Stone and George Dana, of Belpre, 
Ohio, bought a number of pure Merinos from the celebrated 
Wells flock, of SteubenviUe, Oliio ; and Col. Stone kept up a flock 
over half a century. The Wells flock, just mentioned, was 
founded in 1815, and continued to 1829, when it was a grand 
flock of three thousand head, shearing about five pounds of 
washed wool per fleece. It was then sold and scattered. 

For some reason a cloud has always rested over the importa- 



FbR WOOL AN"D MUTTOIS". 21 

tions made subsequently to 1812 ; hence the fine flocks of 
" Black-top " or " Delaine Merinos " — locally known by way of 
emphasis as " the big Merinos " — found in Washington County, 
Pa., tracing to the Meade importation, and with some admix- 
ture of Saxony in several cases, founded about 1826-30, have 
been regarded as Pariahs and outcasts, whose abode was without 
the camp. But, in view of the fact that these same flocks have 
contributed, perhaps more than any others within its borders, 
to set Washington County at the very forefront of the United 
States in the production of sheep and wool, they can rest tran- 
quilly under this bar sinister on their escutcheon. Presenting 
themselves with a modest register, in which no special effort is 
made to conceal the stain in their blood (if it be one) the 
*' Victor-Beall Delaine Merinos " ought to be recognized as an 
excellent variety of the American. 

The flock of Daniel Kelly, Wheaton, 111., has a record dating 
from 1829. That belonging to Alex. Fraser, East Troy, Wis., 
originating from Atwood Mermos, has a record reaching back to 
1846. 

The spread of the Merinos over the Far West is traced to some 
extent in subsequent chapters. 



22 



THE AMEEICAi^ MEEIN^O 



CHAPTEE II 



FORM. 



Correlation of Carcass and Fleece.— In the appendix to 
The Practical Shepherd, Mr. Randall gives some valuable tables, 
which go to show that small sheep produce proportionately 
more vv'ool than medium or large ones. I shall abridge these 
somewhat, and give, first, a table which is based on six hundred 
and fifty-five sheep, divided into lots according to age and sex. 
These tables represent the results of three years' observations. 



Age. 


Sex. 


Average Weight 
of Body. 


Average Weight 
of Fleece. 


Pounds of 

Body to One of 

Wool. 


1 


E 


55.74 


5.07 


11.01 


2 


E 


67.03 


4.94 


13.54 


3 


E 


75.99 


5.18 


14.58 


4 


E 


82.49 


5.06 


16.33 


5 


E 


74.67 


4 75 


1568 


6 


E 


79.00 


4.78 


16.49 


1 


W 


64. 2S 


5.16 


12.43 


2 


W 


84.23 


5.G9 


14.77 


3 


W 


88.86 


6.45 


14.57 


4 


W 


103.94 


7.04 


34.04 


5 


W 


97.72 


7.12 


13.71 



Per Cent of 

Wool to 

Weight of 

Body. 



8.10 
6.90 
6.41 
5.88 
6.00 
5.70 
7.50 
6.49 
6.58 
6.65 
7.00 



From this table, it appears that ewes shear their heaviest 
fleece at three years old, but gain in weight until they reach 
the age of four. The percentage of wool to live weight de- 
creases every year (with the exception of one) until they are six 
years old. It shows also that, for the first two years, ewes are 
more profitable as shearers than wethers ; but after they begin 
to btar iambs, of course, they fall a little behind in their per- 
centage of wool to carcass. The second table is based on the 



EOR WOOL Al^D MUTTOK. 



23 



same number of sheep, classified by weight, for the same num. 
ber of years. 













Per Cent of 


No. in 


Weight of 


Average 


Average 


Pounds of 


Wool to 


Lot. 


Lots. 


Weight. 


Weight of 


Body to One 


Live 








Fleece. 


of Wool 


Weight. 


52 


34 to 51 


44.63 


4.08 


11.86 


8.16 


89 


50 to 61 


55.78 


4.71 


11.90 


7.80 


129 


60 to 71 


66.03 


5.09 


12.98 


7.13 


160 


70 to 81 


75.52 


5.31 


14.21 


6.53 


92 


80 to 91 


85.25 


5.78 


14.77 


6.33 


75 


90 to 101 


95.90 


6.10 


15.44 


5.85 


58 


100 to 140 


111.81 


7.17 


15.56 


6.04 



It will be observed from this table, that the percentage of 
wool to live weight, decreases steadily with the increase in the 
size of the sheep, until the last lot is reached, where there is an 
increase of the fifth of one per cent. But there were only 
seven sheep in this heavy lot, and if there had been a large 
.number to average from, the result might have been different. 
At any rate, the conclusion is irresistible, that young sheep are 
the most profitable as wool-producers ; also, the further con- 
clusion, that a wether at four years of age will yield more mut- 
ton, on an average, than he ever will afterward. Hence, that 
flock will pay best which has every year the highest percentage 
of lambs, notwithstanding the fact that lambs are subject to 
more accidents and fatalities than older sheep. Furthermore, 
since a ewe is more profitable as a wool-bearer than a wether, 
up to the time when she bears a lamb, and is more profitable 
afterward, by reason of her lamb, ewes are a better paying 
class of sheep than wethers. This would indicate the policy of 
selling off wethers closely, and buying ewes for breeders. 

I may add that M. Bernardin, the supevintendent of the 
Rambouillet flock of France, in a letter to Mr. W. G. Markham, 
states that: "Dividing a flock according to weight into four 
sections, we find the smallest sheep will yield twelve and thirty- 
eight hundredths percent of their live weight in wool ; the 
next largest, eleven and forty-one hundredths ; the next, ten 
and thirty-eight hundredths ; and the heaviest, nine and fifty- 
one hundredths." 

A small Merino is hardier and more prolific than a large one. . 
One hundred and twenty sheep, weighing ten thousand pounds, 
will not consume any more feed than one hundred weighing a 
like amount. On the score of mutton, the medium sheep is. 



24 



THE AMERICAN MERIKO 



not objectionable, because the butcher considers size as second- 
ary, and seeks for the carcass which is thoroughly well 
fattened. In proof of this, I give a list of the sales of mutton 
sheep made on two consecutive days in the last week of March, 
1885, at the Union Stock Yards, Chicago, the second column 
showing the average hve weight, and the third column the 
price per hundred pounds. (Note how quality rules instead of 
weight) : — 



M. 


Av. 


Pr. I 


No. 


Av. 


Pr. 


30 inferior 


66 


2 30 


8l2:ood 


106 


4 00 


10 inferior 


80 


2 75 


52 good 


95 


4 00 


126 inferior 


60 


2 95 


125 good 


90 


4 15 


67 common 


81 


3 35 


506 Western 


124 


4 20 


60 common 


67 


3 50 


177 Western 


100 


4 25 


89 common 


73 


3 50 


169 good 


118 


4 25 


287 common 


70 


3 55 


58 good 


108 


4 40 


171 fair 


102 


3 60 


98 choice . 


95 


4 40 


40 fair 


87 


3 75 


171 choice 


123 


4 50 


103 Western 


71 


3 75 

3 75 


10 choice 

280 choice 


100 

139 


4 50 


98 Western 


87 


4 75 


19 medium 


83 


3 75 


75 good 


109 


4 75 


179 medium 


95 


3 90 


18 choice 


112 


4 75 




90 


3 90 
3 60 


189 extra 

ITO medium 


117 

94 


5 00 


62 common 


87 


3 90 


80 common 


88 


3 25 


Ii7 medium 


88 


3 90 


102 common 


83 


3 87i 


94 laeciium 


87 


3 60 


100 fair 


82 


3 40 


74 medium 


91 


4 12i 


100 fair 


82 


3 50 


63 choice 


114 


4.50 


73 fair 


91 


3 50 
3 50 


95 ::ood 

TO ?;ood 


88 

108 


4 25 


30 fair 


75 


4 25 


55 fair 


78 


3 60 


Gi good 


121 


4 25 


74 fair 


77 


3 65 
3 70 


S3 good 

10 good 


113 

156 


4 25 


27 fair 


71 


4 40 


136 fair 


90 


3 75 


89 choice 


105 


4 50 


110 fair 


73 


3 75 


66 choice 


135 


4 75 


32 fair 


90 


3 75 


47 lambs 


93 


5 60 



Race Type. — A perfect a limal should be symmetrical and 
well-rounded, without angularity ; the top and bottom lines 
straight, and nearly parallel to the root of the scrag or neck. 
Back straight ; ribs well sprung out, giving a round barrel, 
thick through the heart ; shoulders deep, chest broad, breast 
bone or brisket extending well in front and down ; hips long, 
straight and broad ; thighs well let down, and heavy ; neck 
short and powerful, without droop on top ; head broad, nose 
short and wriukly, nostrils not flat, but round and open ; legs 
stout, bony, standing wide apart at knee and hock. 

Experience has demonstrated, that great weight of fleece (if 
not the greatest), can be combined with constitutional vigor. 
The greatest amount of yolk compatible with perfect physical 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOST. 25 

development, is admissible in a ram ; so long asthe skin remains 
a bright rosy pink color, and the yolk colorless, or nearly so, it 
is difficult to develop too much of the latter in the fleece. A. 
fleece opening buft or orange, is the choice of many breeders, 
but a yolk tinted lemon, or nankeen, is objectionable, and still 
more so, one of a greenish tinge ; they evince a morbid habit of 
body which is associated with clot or induration of the fleece. 

Wrinkles are not a distinctive race characteristic of the 
American Merino ; for full-blooded and very fine specimens can 
be found which are perfectly plain. They are an individual 
characteristic, and are generally (not always) associated with 
the highest development of the wool-bearing aptitude. Nature, 
uncontrolled in her breeding operations, seeks to perpetuate 
race characteristics alone, so that the labor and skill of man 
must continually intervene to preserve certain desirable features 
in the individual. Hence a somewhat greater degree of wrink- 
liness is permissible in the ram than is desirable in the progeny, 
as a counter-check to this tendency toward reversion. But, 
whatever the keeper of the ctud-flock may choose, the judicious 
wool-grower, knowing that a nearly plain sheep is best fitted to 
cope with wind, and rain, and snow, and is easiest to shear, 
will look well to it that his rams shall not have the skin too 
heavily folded. 

The breeders and wool-growers of Vermont, "Western New 
York, Northern Ohio, and Michigan, carried the wrinkly habit 
of the Merino to a higher pitch than did those of Ohio, Penn- 
sylvania and West Virginia ; and coupled with this was a 
shorter and more yolky staple. These facts have established for 
the clips of the first- named States, a lower price, by two or 
three cents, in the Boston and Philadelphia markets, than is 
paid for the latter. To this, however, there is one exception, 
namely : that the wools of Northern, or rather Northern Cen- 
tral Ohio, sell from one to three cents higher than those of 
Southern Ohio, which is due to their greater uniformity of 
breeding, and more thorough preparation for market. 

Delaine Merino. — The longer stapled and plainer sheep of 
the three States mentioned above, find their culmination in 
Washington County, Pa., in the "Victor-Beall Delaine Merino," 
which is a cross between the old Pennsylvania "Black-top "and 
the "Spanish Merino." Their " scale of points" numbers one 
hundred, distributed as follows : Constitution, ten ; heavy 
round the heart, six ; short, heavy neck, six ; good dewlap, 
five ; broad back, eight ; well-sprung rib, five ; short legs, six ; 



26 THE AMEBIC Alf MEEIKO 

heavy bone, eight ; small, sharp foot, ten ; length of staple, one 
year's growth, three inches, eight ; density of fleece, eight ; 
darkish cast on top, five ; opening up white, five ; with good 
flow of white oil, five ; good crimp in staple, five. Weight of 
rams at maturity not less than one hundred and fifty pounds, 
weight of ewes at maturity, not less than one hundred pounds. 
This family of sheep has been bred and kept in large flocks, 
without housing and without pampering. They have been bred 
also, to produce a short, sharp, and shapely hoof, in order to 
avoid one of the greatest curses of the Merino, a spongy, clubby 
hoof, and a consequent predisposition to foot-rot. 

National Improved Saxony.— This is the designation adopted 
by the present breeders of this fine class of sheep, whose seat is 
also in Washington County, Pa. They have a scale of points 
numbering one hundred, eighty of which admit to register, 
though no animal is eligible whose fleece grades in fineness be- 
low XXX (the two grades above being picklock and picknic). 
The points in the scale are otherwise about the same as those in 
the "Delaine" Register, though they tolerate no wrinkles, and 
only a slight dewlap. Constitution and evenness of fleece 
(" well covered on beily, face and legs"), are each fifteen points, 
which is well, in view of the ancient, hereditary defects of the 
Saxon. Mr. J. G. Clark, Secretary of then- Register, writes me 
that their rams, when full-grown, weigh from one hundred 
and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty pounds, and some 
have gone over that ; ewes, eighty to one hundred pounds and 
over. 

Black-Top Merino. — Mr. W. G. Berry, Secretary of the As- 
sociation, writes me that the "Black-top Merino" breeders have 
in press a Register of about seventy flocks, principally in Wash- 
ington county, Pa. In default of more accurate information, I 
append the following extract from The Shepherd's National 
Journal. The editor, Mr. E. J. Hiatt, a veteran breeder of 
American Merinos, says : " The purity of the blood has not 
been questioned." He adds : * ' We have been acquainted with 
flocks for more than twenty-five years in which this blood pre- 
dominated. The quality of the wool was good. Specimens 
were exhibited at the Pittsburgh and Wheeling Fairs last faU. 
In some respects they showed a marked improvement over their 
ancestors of twenty or twenty-five years since. The strongest 
Improvement is noticeable in their increased size and their 
heavier fleeces. In size^ they are possibly a little heavier than 



FOE WOOL AKD MUTTON". ^7 

the American Merinos, and longer in the legs, neck and head. 
They also shear lighter fleeces. Much of it grades XX and XXX 
delaine. The head, legs and belly are not covered with as long 
or compact a fleece as would be desirable." 

As this work goes to press, the expected Vol. I. of the Black' 
top Spanish Merino Register makes its appearance. I quote 
two paragraphs, as to blood and scale of points : 

" Sheep must be purely bred from the importation of Merino 
sheep from Spain in the year 1802, as bred by W. R. Dickinson. 

" Constitution, fifteen points ; size, twelve points ; general 
appearance, three points; body, fifteen points; head, five 
points ; neck, four points ; legs and feet, ten points ; covering, 
eight points ; quality, seven points ; density, seven points ; 
length, eight points ; oil, six pomts ; total, one hundred points.'* 



CHAPTER III. 
FLEECE. 

Structure of the Wool-Fiber.— The wool-fiber is made up 
of a root, and a stem or shaft, continuous with, and growing 
out of the root. The root exhibits a flask-shaped enlargement, 
which fits down somewhat socket-like upon a very small papilla 
or bulb in the bottom of the fiber-sack ; and this little bulb is 
the feeder of the fiber, the germ of it, which is able to i)roduce 
a new one if the old one is plucked out. The shaft of the fiber 
is composed of an outer cortex, an inner medulla, or marrow 
(though in a majority of wool- fibers this marrow is hollow 
nearly to the tip), and, thirdly, an intermediate fibrous portion, 
constituting two-thirds of the substance of the fiber. 

The cortex is formed by the growth of cells; these cells,' 
lengthening out and becoming flat, assume the form of scales, 
these being j)roduced one after another, just as a roof is made 
by the laying of one course of shingles after another, overlap- 
ping each other. (Vegetable fibers grow at the top, but hair 
and wool fibers grow at the root, the new portion constantly 
pushing out the old). The scales, overlapping each other, with 
free edges, constitute the felting property of wool, which hair, 
being smooth, possesses to a very limited degree, or not at all.* 



28 THE AMERICAN MERINO 

This lapped arrangement of the scales of the cortex, can be de- 
tected by the touch, but not by the eye ; let a fiber be drawn 
between the thumb and finger from root to tip, and it will pass 
smoothly and sweetly through, but if it is drawn the other way 
it will go roughly. A hau- will go about as smoothly one way 
as the other. When a quantity of wool is pressed, rubbed or 
beaten, the free edges of the scales interlock in an infinite num- 
ber of places, and the whole is bound together in a close, dense 
it is felted. 



Round and Flat Fibers. — Although wool, as well as hair, is 
of a tubular construction, yet the cylindrical form varies with 
the climate. A cross-section of a fiber of wool, if strictly cir- 
cular, denotes that it has been grown in a cold northern climate, 
and is lank, long, and soft ; but if the cross-section shows a 
flat-sided or oval hair in the extreme, then the wool or hair is 
of tropical growth, and is crisp and frizzled. There is a change 
in these animal downs as we ascend from the equator to the 
higher latitudes ; hence our better class wool can only be grown 
in temperate climates. Too hot a climate yields a wool too 
crisp and too frizzly ; while, on the other hand, too cool a cli- 
mate, though yielding a wool that is soft to an extreme degree, 
gives too little of the curl or frizzle for many manufacturing 
purposes. This curl or waviness varies in different kinds of 
wool. The long Leicester wool has about eight or nine of 

these waves or curls per inch, but in a fine Ohio wool there are 
as many as thirty to thirty-three waves or curls per inch. 

The Crimp. — This is one of the nice points of a first-rate 
Merino fleece. While the hairs of the horse or the ox are 
straight, the wool-fibers of the Merino are beautifully wavy or 
crimped, and in the best-bred fleeces this crimp is perceptible 
by the naked eye to the very tip of the fiber, not being lost in a 
dark clot or induration. This crimp is caused by frequent, but 
somewhat irregular, well-marked, and more or less spirally ar- 
ranged thickenings of the cortex of the fiber. These thicken- 
nings of the cortical layer occur first on one side of the fiber, 
then on the other, which gives it its wavy and sinuous char- 
acter. 

Length and Diameter. — The difference in the length of 
staple or fiber of the different breeds of sheei> is very remark- 
able, extending from the longest combing wool to the shortest 
clothing staple. There is a gradation of seventeen and a half 
inches ; the longest staple being eighteen inches, and the short- 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOl^. 39 

est half an inch long, and the different breeds and crosses fill 
up a graduated scale between these extreme points. While the 
finest Silesian will yield a fiber one-fifteen liundredth of an inch 
in diameter, a Cotswold fiber will be double the size. 

This idea of measuring the size of fibers of wool with a micro- 
scope, is not a new one ; it was done thirty years or more ago, 
but was of no practical benefit. A wool sorter, who has worked 
at the business from his youth up, without intermission, and 
whose eyes have failed him so that he cannot read a daily paper 
without glasses, will tell without their aid the relative size of 
the fibers of wool so that the different qualities of cloth will be 
uniform, far more so than the Commissioner of Agriculture 
could select them with his microscope. But the microscope has 
shown us one very interesting fact, which the finest touch of 
the expert would hardly have detected, namely : that while the 
hair from the ox or horse, which falls out yearly, tapers its 
whole length, the Merino wool fiber tapers only for a short dis- 
tance at the top ; and when this hoggetty point has been shorn 
off with the first or lamb's fleece, the fibers ever afterward 
remain of the same diameter throughout their whole length. 

How THE Wool Fibsr is Planted.— We have considered 
the fiber itself, somewhat ; now let us turn to the follicle, or 
sack, out of which it grows. This is formed of the epidermis 
and the dermis of the sheep's skin, turned inward and pro- 
longed in a very minute cylinder, which sometimes penetrates 
the tissues of the body one-twelfth of an inch. The blood- 
vessels are distributed in minute branches in the walls of this 
follicle, thickest at the bottom of it ; and they supply nourish- 
ment to the germ at the bottom of the sack, which molds it 
into the substance of the fiber. Besides the wool-follicle, or 
fiber sack, there are two other kinds : the sweat folhcle, and 
the yolk follicle, both of which are only about half as deep as 
the wool follicle. The sweat follicle has its mouth directly on 
the surface of the skin, this mouth being a pore : but the yolk 
follicle empties into the wool follicle near the mouth of the 
latter. The shaft of the fiber does not fit perfectly tight in its 
sheath or sack ; this leaves space for the yolk to surround the 
fiber down to its very root. In this space, also, parasites some- 
times harbor, such as the scab insect. The yolk is for the lubri- 
cation of the fiber, to prevent it from felting with its neighbors, 
while on the sheep's back. The free edges of the scales on the 
fiber, like little barbs pointing toward the tip, continually work 



30 THE AMERICAl^ MERIKO 

the yolk outward toward the tip and at the same time expel 
dirt from the fleece. Thus we see how it is that the Merino, 
which has the finest and best felting wool (in others words, 
fibers with the greatest number of scales to the linear inch), 
needs also the greatest amount of yolk. 

Sorts m the Fleece. — The keen-eyed professional sorter 
tears a fleece into several sorts. " He will rapidly break off the 
coarse skirts for one sort ; then the head, and, perhaps, if the 
fleece is a cross between a native and some fine wooled sheep, 
he will discover a coarse streak running down the nape of the 
neck nearly to the shoulders. This also he breaks out, and 
places with the sort to which it belongs. The shoulders yield 
the finest sort of the fleece, and the sides a sort below. In this 
way each fleece is broken into at least three and often five dif- 
ferent sorts. A large factory has generally as many as eight 
clothing sorts, to which, where worsteds are made, are added 
as many long sorts — combing and delaine. On the sorting 
board the fleece loses its former identity. It is no longer known 
as fine, XX, half-blood, or by any other famihar name. Each 
fleece is resolved into first, second, third, etc., down to the 
bottom. The shoulder of the quarter blood rests in the bin 
with the skirt of the full-blooded fleece, and the skirt of the 
half blood may mingle in yarn with the shoulder of a common 
fleece. So unerring is the discernment of the best sorters that 
under microscopic tests it has been demonstrated that they can 
assort fibers as to fineness within a ten-thousandth of an inch." 
— American Sheep Breeder. 

In the Merino fleece, the wool on 1 and 2 in the diagram 
(Fig. 3), is finest, longest, and strongest ; 3 and 12, short, but 
close ; 4, rather longer, a shade lower than 3 ; 5 and 6, slightly 
coarser, not so close, and apt to be weak in fiber ; 8, lower still, 
and termed the britch or breech ; 7, good length, but slightly 
lower in quality than 1 and 2 ; 9, shorter, and loses vitality as 
compared with better parts ; 10, short and generally frowsy ; 
11, shorter than 12 ; 13, the cap ; dry and harsh ; 14, fribby, and 
and of little value ; 9, 10, 11, 13 and 14 constitute the skirt> 

To economize the number of sorts, is very injudicious ; as 
good, even sorts cannot be made without strict adherence to the 
division of the fleece into its separate parts, so as never to 
allow the ridge to adhere to the shoulder, or similar errors. 
Exception may be made in cases of high-bred wool, up to 
seven-eighths blood and above, as here the distinction is so 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 31 

trifling between the shoulder and other parts that a mere skirt- 
ing is needed. 

Grades of Wool. — There are two great divisions into which 
wool is graded — carding, or clothing wool, and combing wool. 
The clothing staple may be very much crimped, and very short, 
since tne fibers are mingled in every way by the cards, leaving 
the ends to project in a nap which conceals the warp and woof ; 
but combing wool should be long and straight, since the fibers 
axe to be laid side by side, end to end, and spun into yam for 




Fig. 3.— niAGKAM OF FLEECE. 

worsted goods. The finer the fleece the shorter the staple 
which can be used for combing. A coarse combing wool ought 
to be six inches long, while a fine XX staple only two inches 
long could be combed, though it should be two and one-half. 
Coarse fleeces are not graded very closely, while fine fleeces are 
subjected to closer grading. A staple an inch and a half long 
could be worked upon French combs ; but for English machin- 
ery, the length of the staple must be determined by the machines 
following the combs. The ability of a Noble comb to handle 
short wool is not the guide for the buyer of wool for the Eng- 
lish system. The good qualities of pure breed, soundness and 
evenness of wool, from well-fed and carefully handled young 
sheep, allow a margin in selection in favor of the minimum 



32 THE AMERICAN MEEHJTO 

length of staple. A diagram will help to an understanding of 
this subject : 

Superfine | '^XXX^* [ Saxony. 

Fine. .. . I II per cent, combing (delaine) j XX. ^Merino. 

T.^^,. \ 50 per cent, conabing ( No. 1. Quarter - blood and 

Medium|75^ a .. ^ j .No. 3. T Downs. 

Coarse- ( Cotswold, Leice?ter, 
Combing, f Lincoln. 
Carpet. [^Chourro. 

Whence these Grades Come.— Picklock and XXX are now 
confined almost exclusively to Washington county, Pennsyl- 
vania, and the "Pan-handle," where a few flocks are still care- 
fully bred, yielding the Electoral or " noble " wool. In the last 
three decades, the amount of Saxony has much decreased, 
while the proportion of fine and medium to the whole product 
of the nation, has vastly increased, owing to the spread of the 
American Merino. Occasionally, a Merino fleece grades XXX 
("XX and above" is intermediate), but here a touch of Saxon 
blood may be suspected. 

The greater part of American Merino wool grades XX, and of 
this the best samples come from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West 
Vu'ginia. The grade known as X is generally obtained from 
the full-blood Merino of Wisconsin and Michigan, and also 
from the finer crosses (half-blood and above), though the latter 
are often graded into "combing,' and designated as delaine. 
Central Wisconsin has many choice delaine fiocks ; those of 
Messrs. Rich & McConneil, of Ripon, have yielded staples four 
and seven-eighths and four and five-eighths inches in lengthy 
respectively. Michigan wools long suffered from the same 
faults as those of Vermont and Western New York, short and 
gummy ; but lately much improvement is manifest, and they 
often rank with the best Ohio. 

Missouri now furnishes a considerable quantity of combing 
wool, the Merinos of that State having b-^en crossed on the large 
native stock. The greater part of No. 1 and No. 2 now come 
from this cross. Kentucky yields a large percentage of comb- 
ing wool. Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado wools have greatly 
improved in the last decade ; they now fall only five to ten 
cents the scoured pound, behind the best Ohio. California and 
Texas wools rarely ever yield any combing wool, but would do 
so, were it not for the semi-annual clippings. At the close of 
the war, Texas wool was fit only for carpet filling or, at best, 
for coarse blankets ; now there are large flocks that grade up 



FOR WOOL AiiTD mutto:n". 33 

to X, and above. Twenty years ago, Santa Fe wool was fit only 
for carpets or horse blankets ; but the introduction of Merino 
blood has raised the grade up to No. 1 and low X. Montana 
fleeces are the best of the whole Territorial clip. 

A considerable combing and delaine wool comes from Oregon 
and Washington Territory. Vermont always furnishes a class 
of wool which will yield a large percentage of fine combing, 
together with a good deal of unwashed and un-merchantable. 

Effect of Climate on the Fiber. — It was the opinion of Dr. 
Randall, that a hot climate, with its consequent rankness of 
vegetation, would coarsen the fiber of sheep taken to it from a 
colder region. This opinion does not appear to be sustained by 
modern investigators. Mr. G. W. Bond, an eminent expert of 
Boston, exhibited to a scientific society some skins of Arabian 
sheep ; some of them covered with hair alone, and others with 
similar hair, but having a thick undergrowth of wool, which 
proved to be as fine as the finest Saxon. Mr. Mark R, Cockerill 
imported some Saxons in 1824 or 1826, and kept them in Missis- 
sippi (Madison County), a quarter of a century. At the World's 
Fair, in London, 1851, samples of their fieeces were brought into 
competition with German wools. The latter were recognized 
by the jury as the finest and longest on exhibition, but those of 
Mr. Cockerill received two prize medals, of the same grade as 
German, and were reported by the expert employed by the jury 
"as most approximating to the character of German wools.'' 
Mr. Graham, the author of a popular hand-book on Australian 
sheep, states it was the general belief that the climate of Darling 
Downs, a region within the tropics, was too hot for the growth 
of good wool ; but that the superintendent of the Clyde Com- 
pany, by a " careful and judicious system of selection," suc- 
ceeded in producing " as good wool as any grown in Australia, 
although it still bore the name of hot-country wool.'''' 

Effect of High Feeding. —Prof. Sanson, an eminent zooto- 
mist of France, in a report to the French Academy of Sciences, 
which is perhaps the highest scientific body in the world, gives 
the following summary of the results of his investigations on 
this subject : 

" 1. The precocious development of Merino sheep, having the 
effect to carry their aptitude to produce fiesh to the highest de- 
gree that sheep can attain, exercises no influence on the fine- 
ness of their wool. This preserves the diameter which it would 
have had it developed in normal conditions, for the reason that 



34 THE AMERICAN MERIKO 

this diameter depends upon the individual and hereditary- 
aptitudes. 

2. The influence exercised by the precocious development 
upon the hair of the wool exhibits itseK by an augmentation of 
the length of the same hair ; its growth, resulting from the 
formation of epidermic cellules in the hair-bulb, being more 
active. There is, therefore, more woolly substance produced in 
the same time. 

3. The precocious development does not vary the number of 
hair or wool bulbs existing for a determinate extent of the sur- 
face of the skin. It produces, therefore, no change in what is 
vulgarly called the tasse (density of staple). The modifications 
which the staple of wool presents in this respect are only ap- 
parent. By increasing the length of the hairs, the precocity 
necessarily increases that of the locks of wool which they form, 
which makes the fleece appear less dense." 

To sum up aU in a word, high feeding increases the length of 
the staple and the secretion of yolk, but not the diameter of the 
fiber, or the number of fibers to the square inch of skin. Very 
high feeding, or pampering, increases the yolk in a geometrical 
ratio to the fleece. This ought to operate as a safeguard for the 
protection of the sheep from this pernicious practice ; but it 
does not wholly, for, unfortunately, the ' ' big fleeces " of the 
fairs and public shearings are always weighed "in the grease," 
instead of scoured. The chief defense instituted by Nature 
against this evil of pampering is, that sheep so treated often 
suddenly and mysteriously die. 

Length and Density. — A fiber two and a half inches long 
which is perfectly sound and true, is better every way than one 
which is three inches long, but has a ''joint" or weak spot 
caused by poverty or sickness in the animal, which will cause 
one-half inch to break off in the combs. It is better, because 
the existence and nourishment of the sheep during the growth 
of that half inch cost sometliing, while that half inch is prac- 
tically a total loss to the manufacturer, and tends to discredit 
both the fleece and the grower. 

No one will dispute the proposition that it should be the 
cardinal object of the wool-grower to produce a sheep having 
the greatest possible number of fibers to the square inch of sMn, 
and those fibers of the greatest possible length. The striving 
for the attainment of either of these objects has more or less 
tendency to defeat or repress the other ; yet not so much as a 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 35 

certain school of breeders would have us believe. Density, 
though the expression of an exceedingly valuable constituent of 
the best fleece, is an illusive term, or perhaps more accurately, 
a term liable to be misapplied. When a fleece on the back of a 
sheep is grasped in the hand and offers a firm resistance to com- 
pression, presents a good handful, it is called dense by super- 
ficial men, without further examination. But it may not be 
true density at all ; it may be yolkiness carried to the exagger- 
ated state. A fiber is entitled to so much yolk as will thor- 
oughly lubricate it from end to end and make it glisten ; but 
this substance should not collect in lumps. A fleece with a fiber 
three inches in length, may carry as much weight of yolk as one 
of only two inches, yet not feel or be pronounced by the award- 
ing committee as " dense" as the latter. 

Strength OF Dry and Yolky Wools.— Some years ago I 
addressed inquiries to a number of experts, as to the compara- 
tive strength of dry and yolky wools ; and, contrary to my pre- 
vious belief, they all replied that y<Dlky wools are the stronger 
of the two. The explanation of this seeming paradox is this : 
Good feeding makes good wool, and it also makes yolk. Where 
you find a yolky flock of sheep, you are almost certain to find 
a liberal feeder and a pains-taking shepherd. The burden of 
yolk, especially if it is collected into pasty lumps, is distasteful 
to the manufacturer, and causes a higher percentage of loss in 
the scouring-tub ; but at the end of the cleansing process, we 
are tolerably certain to find a staple true and sound. 

The wools on the Vermont side of the Connecticut river, are 
much more yolky than those on the New Hampshire side ; but 
the New England manufacturers are well aware that they are 
stronger. Vermont wools lose most in the scouring-tub ; New 
Hampshire wools most in the cards or combs. A certain amount 
of yolk conduces to soundness and strength by protecting the 
fiber from dust, alkali and rain. 

CoTTiNG. — We shall perhaps best arrive at a definition of 
first-rate Merino wool by a statement of the faults which are 
liable to occur in a fleece. Cotting generally develops itself in 
the winter, as a result of a diseased condition of the sheep, and 
when shearing-time comes the animal is pronounced '* fleece- 
grown." Some part or all of the fleece is completely fulled or 
matted together, so that it can be thrown about or held up by 
one lock as if it were a pelt. But, as the sheep has by this time 
generally recovered from its illness, most of the fibers will be 



36 - THE AMERICAiq- MEKIN^O 

found to have parted from the body, and the fleece will be 
clinging to the skin by a very few fibers, so that the shearer can 
strip it off rapidly. Such a fleece has a very low value, and it 
is a clear fraud to throw it into the pile and attempt to sell it 
for sound wool. 

The nature of the felting quality has already been explained, 
and this unnatural felting is caused by the diying-up of the 
yolk-glands from disease. When we consider the innumerable 
particles of dirt, chaff, seeds, etc., which fall upon the fleece in 
a year, it is wonderful what a clean, bright interior is exhibited 
when we open up the unwashed fleece on the sheep's back in 
the spring. The useful purpose of the minute barbs, or free 
edges of the cortical scales is manifest ; without them the fleece 
would become a mass of filth. 

The most frequent cause of cotting, the ammoniacal exhala- 
tions of an uncleaned stable, wifl be further discussed in a sub- 
sequent chapter. 

Black-Top and Clots. — ^A perfect Merino fleece will show 
the crimp to the extreme outer end of the fiber ; it is needless 
to remark that there are not many perfect fleeces. There are 
two kinds of indui-a lions : one is called the "Black-top," and 
the other may be designated as the " Grray Shoulder-Clot." The 
Black-top, extends the whole length of the fleece, being densest 
along the back-bone, and extending down the sides more or less, 
to the belly. In some sheep, the Black-top renders the fleece 
almost water-proof ; during the summer no amount of rain will 
dissolve the gummy, pasty, tar-black sheeting of the fleece, or 
wash this down into it, as common yolk is washed. In the 
summer, this gummy top is soft to the touch, but in winter, 
especially if the animal is confined, and allowed little exercise 
to warm its blood, it becomes separated into homy lumps, each 
one tipping a lock of wool, and as hard as a board. 

Though bad enough, this is not so objectionable as the gray 
Shoulder-Clot. I'his is more pronounced on the shoulders or 
withers, but frequently extends half-way down the shouldei^s, 
and more or less along the backbone. Sometimes this seems to 
be a constitutional defect, but generally it is caused by poverty ; 
the circulation of the blood is so feeble, where the shoulders are 
sharpened thin, that there is not enough animal heat to keep 
the yolk liquid. The rain disorganizes and de-vitalizes the yolk, 
washes away the softer parts of it, and the residuum coagulates, 
and gums the locks together. In a short-fibered fleece (and they 



FOR WOOL AN'D MUTTON". 37 

generally occur in this sort), the locks will be glued together 
for the outer half of their length, and so hard as to require a 
hammer to break them down. A sheep with these clots in its 
fleece ought to be rejected from the flock ; they are an 
abomination to the manufacturer. 

"Jar."— This is properly gare, but "Jar "seems to be per- 
manently incorporated into the shepherd's vocabulary. It is 
simply hair, but it is hair of the worst kind ; wild, coarse, and 
frizzly, utterly refractory in the cards, combs, and dye-tub. It 
is of tenest seen on rams, on the outer surface of neck-folds, and 
less frequently on the side-folds and hips. In Cotswold sheep 
and Angora goats, it occurs on the hips, and is called " Kemp." 
Jar is not found on a feeble sheep, it is an excrescence of 
a vigorous animal. Though highly objectionable in itself, it 
marks a very desirable quality ; a good constitution. Unless it 
is excessive (short, curly jar is the worst), and the ram is im- 
perfect otherwise, the breeder need not trouble himself much 
about it, as it seldom occurs on ewes and wethers. He could 
afford to throw away part of the ram's fleece for the sake of his 
constitution. 

*' Jointed " Wool. — Whatever keep the shepherd gives his 
flock, good, bad or indiiierent, it ought to be regular. Amid 
all the conflict of opinion among wool-growers, as to the effect 
of different feeds on the staple, one thing is certain : regular 
feeding makes a true (even) fiber. To employ a somewhat 
fanciful illustration, the fiber is a delicate rod on which every 
attack of disease, every protracted spell of hunger cuts a notch, 
and thus weakens it. The reason is obvious. Like every other 
part of the body, the wool is nourished by the blood. If there 
is a lack of feed for a day or two, or an attack of disease, the 
blood becomes impoverished to that extent, and secretes in the 
wool-follicles less matter for the building-up of the fiber. It is 
an erroneous belief of some flock-masters, that a period of 
starving or disease weakens the staple along the whole length. 
This can not be. As previously described in this chapter, the 
fiber grows by the continual formation of new cells at the bot- 
tom. Every day's growth is a complete and finished product ; 
nothing that can happen afterward can change its diameter or 
structure. When the sheep dies, the fiber stops growing, but 
so long as life lasts, it must keep growing, only in a case 
where the blood is impoverished, it can not furnish the usual 
quantity of matter, and there is a weak place formed. 



38 THE AMERIOAI^ MERIifO 

In the Far West, a heavy snow covering the grass for several 
days, sometimes weakens the fibers so that most of them break 
near the skin, from their own weight, and the fleece falls off. 

Clouded Fleeces. — The first choice of fleece rolls off from 
the shears elastic, voluminous, and white as snow ; the second 
choice is a rich buff-yellow, or golden tint. Fleeces from the 
prairies or the adobe flats of California are stained dark by the 
soil. In East Tennessee they are reddened with clay. Bat 
sometimes there are fleeces shorn from sheep that are kept on 
the cleanest soils, and with the greatest care, that are disfigured 
by large saffron-colored, or lemon-colored patches along the 
back and down the sides. 

These may be produced by rain-water trickling down through 
straw-roofed sheds, which, for this reason, are a nuisance. But 
generally, there is no other assignable reason than a disordered 
cu'culation of the blood, consequent upon a lack of exercise and 
an irregular system of housing. If an attempt is made to house 
a flock through the winter, it ought to be carried out. Sys- 
tematic exposure is better than a housing from one storm, and 
a wetting in the next. These cloudy places do not necessarily 
injure the staple, but they detract from the beauty and salable- 
ness of the fleece. 

Mold. — Energetic flock-masters, especially in the Far West 
where they have vast flocks to handle, are sometimes tempted 
to push on the shearing, when the sheep are wet with rain or 
dew. This is a grave error. The dry parts of the fleece will 
not absorb the moisture sufficiently to prevent mold, and this 
is justly offensive to the manufacturer. The wishes of the 
manufacturer are generally based on sound business consider- 
ations, not emanating from caprice, and the farmer is bound by 
his own interest to give them reasonable attention. 

Stuffing, Strings, Etc.— American flock-masters are too 
prone to stuff their fleeces with unwashed, with tags, dead 
wool, parts of rams' fleeces, here a little, there a Kttle. Our 
national record in this regard, falls below the Australian, even 
below that of the Argentine Eepubhc. The buyer or commission 
agent in the country, may pass this matter over lightly, fear- 
ing to estrange his men ; but he knows that here is a sure 
menace of claims and discounts, and so quietly operates to cover, 
if he can. The buyer for the mill feels that here is a point 
where his vigilance, though sleepless, maybe entirely inade- 
quate. The following figures relate to wools carefully selected 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTOK. 39 

to avoid burrs ; the ' ' Fribs " include all locks too short for comb- 
ing, taken off before skirting, but not the skirts themselves. 
The yield of two million pounds of American washed combing 
fleeces, mainly from Ohio (one million pounds being Ohio fine 
delaine), sorted in one year in a worsted mill, was over one 
hundred and fifty thousand pounds of fribs, twenty thousand 
pounds of burry clips, and twelve thousand pounds of strings ; 
all of this was paid for, of course, as combing wool. The same 
treatment, the next year, of three hundred and thirty-four 
tiiousand pounds (one-sixth the quantity) of Australian un- 
washed Merino and Cross Bred wool, yielded four thousand 
pounds of fribs, six hundred of burry clips, and less than one 
hundred pounds of strings. If done up as the American wool 
was, this Australian lot would have contained twenty-five 
thousand pounds of fribs and two thousand pounds of strings. 

Burrs, Thistles, Etc.— Burrs, thistles and tar-marks, are 
more objectionable than the same weight of natural yolk. 
Scouring may take away all the yolk, while some remains of 
the former may obstinately resist all machines and all treat- 
ment, and appear as an incurable defect in a high-priced fabric. 
Besides this, the labor of the sorter (who generally works by 
the pound), is greatly increased by burrs, thistles, etc., and they 
may thus prove a tax that is a serious inroad upon his wages. 

Unevenness — One of the greatest errors the farmer can 
commit is, to grow mixed sheep. If it were profitable to grow 
carpet wools at all, it would be better for him to have a flock of 
carpet-wool sheep, rather than one containing some coarse, 
some medium, some fine, some superfine ; because the clip 
would all practically grade and be sold as coarse, while the 
maintenance of the fine-wooled sheep, would be more expensive 
than that of the coarse-fleeced. Still worse than this mixed 
flock, is a mixed sheep; that is, one, which from ill-judged 
attempts at crossing, has a coarse streak running down the nape 
of the neck, or one, which from mismanagement in breeding, 
has white and long wool on the shoulder, but short, yellow and 
frowzy wool on the belly. It is the crowning excellence of the 
pure-blood American Merino, that it has wool very nearly of 
the same length all over the body. 



40 THE AMERICAN" MERIl!fO 

Sectional Prices of Wool. — The following table shows the 
prices of wool at the date ^iven, in different parts of the United 
States, with some foreign kinds : 

Chicago, Oct. 20, 1884. 

WASHED FLEECES. ;_ ;'' 

Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Vikginja. 

XX and above 34 @ 36 

X 3a @ 33 

No. 1 32 @ 34 ^ 

No. 2 29 @ 31 

Common 34 @ 26-| 

New York, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin. -^^ 

X and above 28 @ 3a • 

No. 1 30@32:: 

No. 2 and Common .23 @ 28 

Combing and Delaine. 

Washed Fine Delaine S3 @ 38 ^ 

Washed Medium 34 @ 37 ' -^ 

Washed Coarse 26 @ 80 J 

Unwashed Medium 24 @ 26 

Unwashed Coarse 20 @ 24 

Pulled Wools. 

New York City extra 25 @ 30 ' 

New York Citv super 28 @ 33 

New York City Lambs 25 @ 30 

Eastern and Country extra ; . . . c;0 @ 32 . 

Eastern and Country super 32 @ 35^^ 

Western extra and super 23 @ 27--""^' 

UNWASHED. M g05|' 

Indiana., Missouri AND Kentucky. ^~^?^i ^ 

Brk/ht. Ordindryi'^^ 
Fine f?0 @ 22 I Y! @ m^^ 



Medium 23 (5) 26 19 @ 20 . 

Coarse 19 @ 21 I 17 @ ll9i^'; 

Kansas, Nebraska, and Territory. 

Choice. A verage. 



Kansas and Nebraska Fine 17 (cb 18 

Kansas and Nebraska Medium 18 @ 20 

Utah and Wyomins; Fine 18 (S 20 

Utah and Wyoming Medium 20 (a) 21 

Montana Fine 20 @ 22 

Montana Medium 22 (d) 24 

Nevada 17 (a) 20 

Colorado and New Mexico Fine 17 (^ 18 

Colorado and New Mexico Medium. . .18 @, 19 

Coarse and Carpet 14 (S 16 

Black 14 @ 16 



15 (5) 16 

16 (a) 18 
15 @ 17 

17 (cb 20 

18 (S 20 
20 (d) 21 
13 @ 15 

15 m 17 

16 @ 18 
13 (^ 14 
12 @ 13 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTON. 



41 



Texas. 

Choice. 

f 20 («) 2a 

Medium Eastern $ | ;.l (t^ ki2 



Fine Eastern, 



Fine Western . _ 

Medium Western S 

Improved Mexican ^ 



l(j (c<) 17 
16 (g 18 
15 @ 16 



Average. 

17 @ 18 

18 @ 20 

14 @ 15 

15 @ 16 
13 (§ 14 



Califoenia and Oregon. 



Spring Clip, Northern 20 @ 24 

Spring Clip, Southern 15 @ 18 

Spring Clip, low grades and hurry 10 @ 15 

Fall Clip, A 1 10 @ 13 

Fall Clip, low grades and hurry 9 @ 10 

Valley Oregon, A 1 21 @ 23 

Valley Oregon, A 2 21 @ 22 

Eastern Oregon, A 1 16 @ 19 

Eastern Oregon, No. 2 16 @ 19 

Georgia, Lakb, Etc. 

Georgia 22 @ 23 

Lake ." 21 @ 23 

Virginia Mediiiin 26 @ 28 

Virginia Coarse 20 @ 23 

Foreign M ools. 

Cape of Good Hope 27 @ 28 

Montevideo 29 @ 31 

Australian 34 @ 38 

Wool Production. — The following table, prepared from es- 
timates of Mr. James Lynch, of New York, shows the recent 
enormous development of sheep husbandry beyond the Mis- 
sissippi : 



Year. 


Washed. 


Bocky 3 foun- 
tains* 


Texas. 


Soulhern. 


Aggregate. 


I«r7 


140.000,000 


11.000.000 


7.000,000 


2,00".000 


160,000,000 


19fi« 


loO.OOO.f'OO 


IfJ.OOO.OOO 


8.000,000 


3.000,000 


177,000,000 


1P69 


134.000.000 


17,250.000 


7,000,000 


3,000.(00 


162,250.000 


1S70 


130,000.000 


23,000,000 


7,000,000 


3,0d0.( 00 


103,000,00(1 


I'^Tl 


110,000.000 


25.000,000 


8,000,000 


3.000.000 


146,000.000 


1872 


120,000,000 


27,000,000 


9,000,000 


4.000 000 


160,000.000 


1873 


12n,000,000 


37,200.000 


9,000,000 


3,500,000 


174,7(0,000 


1874 


120,000 000 


44.500.000 


10.000,0(!0 


3,500,000 


178,000,000 


1875 


125.000,000 


52.000,000 


12,000,000 


4,000,000 


193,000,000 


1876 


110,000.000 


70,250.000 


13.000.000 


5,000,000 


198,250,000 


1877 


117,000.000 


70,250,000 


14,000.000 


7,000,000 


208,250,000 



♦Including Pacific Slope. 



The following record of the quarterly average prices of Ohio 
clothing wool (the best average product of American Merino 



42 



THE AMERICAI^ MERINO 



grades), as sold in the Boston market during the last seventeen 
years, is furnished by Mr. George William Bond, of Boston : 



Tear. 


Januai-y. 


April. 


July. 


October. 


1860 


^0 60 


fO 50 $0.40 


fO.52 $0.45 $0.40 


$0.55 


$0.50 $0.40 


1 1 
$0.50 $0.45 $0 40 


1861 


45 


40 


37 


45| 


37 


32 


41) 


35 


32 


47 


47 


52 








*62' 

*74i 
96 






*50 

*76 

*79 

75 






*47 

*73f 

*83i 

60 






*58 


10AQ 










*70 


1864 






"75 




73 


' 75 


"75 


*1.03# 


1865 


1 0?, 


1.00 


80 


80 


65 


1866 


70 


65 


5t) 


65 


60 


48 


70 


67 


60 


63 


60 


56 


1867 


68 


58 


50 


60 


55 


50 


55 


49 


45 


48 


46 


40 


1868 


48 


4.S 


38 


50 


48 


45 


46 


45 


43 


48 


48 


45 


1869 


50 


50 


48 


50 


50 


48 


48 


48 


47 


48 


48 


46 


1870 


48 


46 


44 


48 


47 


40 


46 


45 


43 


48 


48 


45 


1871 


47 


46 


43 


50 


52 


47 


62 


60 


55 


63 


62 


58 


1872 


70 


67 


66 


80 


HO 


76 


72 


70 


65 


66 


60 


57 


1873 


70 


68 


65 


56 


53 


48 


50 


48 


44 


54 


53 


47 


1874 


58 


54 


47 


56 


56 


47 


53 


53 


46 


54 


54 


47 


1875 


55 


56 


47 


54' 


52 


46 


52 


49 


46 


48 50 


42 


1876 


48 


52 


42 


46 


49 


40 


38 


35 


31 


45' 40 


38 



*Average price. 



The Boston record of Ohio wool prices, from the same 
source, is, from 1840 to 1861, as foUows : 



Tears. 


Fine, 


Middle. 


Long. 1 


Tears. 


Fine. 


Middle. 


Long. 


1810 


$0.45 


$0.36 


$0.31 


1851 


$0.41 


$0.38 


$0.32 


1841 


50 


45 


40 


1852 


49 


45 


40 


1842* 








1853 

1854 


55 
41 


50 
36 


43 


1843 


41 


35 


30 


32* 


1844 


.1 42 . 


37 


m 


1855 


50 


42 


34 


1845 


36* 


30 


26 


1856 .... 


55 


47 


37 


18^6 


.1 34 


30 


2Ci 


1857 


56 


47 


41 


1847 


47 


40 


30 


1858 


53 


46 


36 


1848 


.1 32 


28 


24 


1859 


58 


47 


35 


1849 .. .. 


41 
.' 47 


37 
42 


32 

36 1 


1860 

1861 


54 
45 


47 
45 


37 


1830 


50 



♦Price all round, 33* to 35 cents. 

These tables show that long wool (from the mutton breeds), 
has shared in the fluctuations of fine ; has risen and fallen with 
considerable uniformity, when the latter has done so. The 
amount of fine or Merino wool produced in the world, since the 
settlement of Australia and the American Territories, has in- 
creased enormously out of proportion to coarse wool ; yet the 
price of the former has nearly held its old percentage of super- 
iority in the general decline. In other words, the addition of 
two hundred million Merinos to the world's flocks, has de- 
pressed the price of their wool very little more proportionately, 
than the addition of twenty-five milhon mutton sheep to the 



FOR WOOL AKD MCTTTOJiT. 



43 



world's supply has reduced the price of long wool. If Merino 
wool can endure this vast expansion, and hold its own under it 
BO well, what may we not expect of it in the future ? 

I will add a brief table, giving a comparative view of wool 
and cotton, showing that wool has declined little more in three- 
quarters of a century, than the great staple of the South : 



Year. 


Wool Frice in Boston. 


Cotton Price in Boston. 


1801—' 5... 


....$ .37 @ $ 45.... 


....19 @ 23 


1806— '10... 


.... 1.00 @ 2.00.... 


....14 (^22 


1811— '15... 


.... 2.00 


....10.6 (^ 16.5 


1816— '20... 


No record. 


....17.4 @ 33.8 


1821— '25... 


.... 60 


....11.8 @ 20.9 


1829— '30... 


.... 38 @ 70 


....10.4 


1834— '35... 


..., 60 @ 70 


....17.45 


1840— '41... 


.... 46 (§ 52 


.... 9.50 


1845-'46... 


.... 36 @ 45 


.... 7.87 


1850— '51... 


.... 41 @ 47 


....13.14 


1855-'56... 


.... 40 @ 60 


....io.::o 


1860-'61... 


...; 45 @ 60 


....13.01 


1865-'66... 


.... 70@1.02 


....43.20 


1870— '71... 


.... 47 @ 48 


....16.95 


1875— '76... 


.... 48 @ 65 





1885 


.... 83 (u^ 3ii 


....llVie 



CHAPTER IV. 



BLOOD. 



Blood, breeding, and feed, are the three great factors with 
which the wool-grower, by judicious comb nation, can work 
out success. Money will buy blood, but breeding and feeding 
require art, or at least skill. The superficial thinker, might 
therefore conclude at once, that blood is of less importance than 
either of the other elements. This view is en'oneous. Blood is 
the outcome of the breedmg and feeding of a hundred years — 
in the Merino, of a thousand, or for aught we know, of two 
thousand years. Hence, with money we can buy the labor and 
skill of thirty generations of men. Certainly it would not be 
the part of wisdom to neglect to do so. 

In a race of high antiquity, whose characteristics have long 
been established, blood is of higher proportionate value than in 



44 THE AMERICAN MERIl^O 

a breed of more recent origin. In the latter, blood is of less 
value, except as it is of individual excellence. 

Full-Blood and Thoroughbred. — In popular language these 
terms are synonymous. When used in reference to horses, there 
is a well-defined difference between them, which it would argue 
ignorance to neglect. Some writers seek to establish a differ- 
ence also, when they are used in relation to sheep and in this 
way : A full-blood is one in whose veins there is no admixture 
or stain of any other blood but the Spanish, while a thorough- 
bred, is all that and something more. A sheep may be a full- 
blood (pure-blood would be a better term), and yet be so de- 
ficient in form or fleece, as to be unfit for a breeder. But a 
thoroughbred, is the outcome of a long line of ancestors, which, 
beginning with pure blood, have been so consummately molded 
by man to a special purpose, that this last and finished product 
is, so to speak, incapable of begetting or bearing a progeny 
different from itself. While these ought to be, and with ac- 
curate men are the definitions of the two terms, in popular 
usage they are not. 

AU hons, all tigers, all animals in a state of nature are full- 
bloods, pure-bloods, average types of their respective races ; but 
not all of them are thoroughbreds ; that is, not all of them are 
so even in all their qualities, and so sound in their constitutions, 
as to be able to produce progeny up to the level of the race- 
standard. They are weeded out by natural selection ; they are 
ill-formed, or weak, or lacking in cunning, and they perish in 
the struggle of life, leaving the best individuals behind to per- 
petuate the race. Under a state of domestication in which 
man seeks to preserve all the individuals, good and poor, he 
must himself conduct this selection of his breeders. 

Pedigree may have a very high value, or it may have none at 
ail. If a sheep with an unbroken ancestry of a thousand years, 
or two thousand years, has a very poor constitution, or a bald 
head, it is more likely to impart those faults to its offspring, 
than if it belonged to a breed of more recent origin. It may, 
for this reason, be even less valuable in every respect, than a 
high-grade. Every official Register is seriously at fault which 
does not require individual merit, a " scale of points," as well as 
unquestioned purity of blood, as qualifications for registry. 

Pedigree, is like a long train of cars ; it runs with strong 
momentum, and it runs straight. An animal without pedigree, 
originating yesterday, is like a single car ; it rocks to and fro, it 
is Uable to swing off the track. 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTT02?}". 45 

Breeders like to claim for their favorite stock, something akin 
to the Papal infallibility ; they say, in effect : Given a thousand 
years' pedigree in your breeding flock, and you can not get an 
inferior animal. But this logic can not stand. Twin rams, twin 
bulls, own brothers in a family, disprove it every day. 

Yet I would not be thought to detract anything from the 
transcendent value of pure blood. Often a grade of threes 
fourths or seven-eighths blood, sired by a strong-blooded ram, 
will to all appearance possess aU the desirable qualities of a 
thoroughbred, and reproduce himself in his progeny ; but the 
next generation, or the next, or at the first ill usage, his der 
scendants will " breed back " to his low original. The thorough- 
bred Merino produces a fleece of very nearly the same length 
all over the body, while a grade only approximates this, and 
that, when young and full-fed. The thoroughbred fleece is 
almost uniform in strength and fineness all over the body, so 
that a great part of it can enter into the fabric of the same 
garment. 

In 1882, Dr. A. H. Cutting, of the Vermont Board of Agricul- 
ture, made a microscopic examination of the number of fibers of 
wool on a square inch of the undried pelt of a sterile full-blood 
ram, slaughtered for the purpose. He reported officially as fol- 
lows : " The mean result of all my experiments is, that there 
are two hundred and seventy-six thousand, four hundred and 
eighty pores to the square inch, from which wool may grow, 
but they do not all contain a wool fiber, as the fibers per square 
inch are two hundred and twenty-two thousand and three hun- 
dred. Of course, either of these is liable to a small error, but I 
compared this with the ordinary open-wool sheep, and find that 
there are about thirty on this pelt, to one on the common sheep ; 
and yet I examined what would be called a good-wooled sheep." 

Such facts as are above recited, explain and make reasonable 
the enormous price paid for very choice tlioroughbred rams and 
ewes. They are based on great individual prepotency, coupled 
to a long pedigree. No ram, however faultless in form and 
fleece, and illustrious in descent, could justly be valued at one 
thousand or two thousand dollars, until he had given proof of 
his own powers of transmission by actual service as a stock- 
getter. 

The Ram is Moue Than Half the Flock.— It is customary 
to emphasize the necessity of a careful solection and purchase 
of rams, by the statement that the ram is half the breeding-flock. 
He is more than half, as may be shown. 



46 THE AMERICAN MERIXO 

It is a great general law of biology, that animals in a state of 
domestication, and more especially when ill-fed and cared for, 
have a constant tendency to revert to their original condition. 
The frequent reappearance of "jar" is one, among several 
proofs of this. Under this tendency, we can breed down from a 
thoroughbred to a " scrub," sooner than we can the reverse. A 
diagram will illustrate. 

Thoroughbred ) Half-blood ) 

Scrub. j" Scrub. ) Scrub. 

That is, as the result of the second cross, we have, for aU 
practical purposes, in a majority of cases, a scrub, where by the 
rules of arithmetic, we should have a quarter-blood. Hence, 
either the ram or the ewe. or both, must constantly be so selected 
as to breed up, else the progeny will steadily go down. Two 
and two do not make four — in breeding. Either the ram or the 
ewe must represent three, if we wish to secure a steady uniform 
result of four. It is more convenient, and generally less ex- 
pensive, to get a ram of very high standard than it is to get a 
flock of ewes of the same standard. 

Many farmers have an unjust prejudice against thoroughbred 
Merinos. The scarcity, and consequent high price of these 
animals, for many years, led to the perpetration of gross frauds. 
In many cases, sheep of low degree, by unscrupulous pampering 
and artificial preparation, were so embellished, as to be palmed 
off upon the unsuspecting wool-gi'ower, as full-bloods. When 
they, or their progeny, were compelled to "rough it" a little 
(for the average wool-grower of the United States is not yet pre- 
pared to house and blanket his sheep all summer), they speedily 
collapsed, and revealed the cheat. 

The full-blood Spanish Merino was exposed freely on its na- 
tive mountains for a thousand years. The thoroughbred Amer- 
can Merino would do well on the deserts of the Far West, if only 
a plain, hardy type was selected, and judiciously acclimated. 1 
formerly shared the general belief as to the constitutional 
delicacy of the thoroughbred ; but experience has taught rae 
that, if equally weU-fed with the grade, it is equally tolerant of 
the severest weather. 

The Texas or California flock-master, generally holds that he 
must stop with a three-fourths or seven-eighths Merino, for tho 
hard life of the plains. Let him fight clear of wrinkles, and he 
will be perfectly safe with a pure-blood. 



FOR WOOL A^D MUTTOK. 47 

'CHAPTER V. 
BREEDING. 

At What Age to Breed Ewes.— There has been much 
heated controversy on this point —between those who believe 
that a ewe should bear her first lamb at the age of two years, 
and those who advocate three years as the proper time ; since 
no breeder of Merinos would bring a ewe into service at the 
immature age of one year. 

There are several points to be considered : — 

First : It was shown in a preceding chapter, that it is of im- 
portance to the wool-grower, to have the largest practicable pro- 
portion of young sheep in his flock, because of their greater 
profitableness. For this reason, it is desirable to bring into ser- 
vice all the ewes suited for it, as young as possible, thereby to 
enlarge the crop of lambs, and enable the owner to constantly 
weed out all the sheep that have passed the meridian of profit. 

Second : One of the greatest defects of the Merino ewe is her 
lack of fertility and prolificacy. It is a constitutional defect, to 
begin with, and it is augmented by very high and artificial 
keeping. There is no doubt that a ewe which passes her heat 
a considerable number of times without conceiving, is rendered 
thereby more uncertain as a breeder ; she is less likely to be- 
come impregnated when at length brought to the ram. Now, 
a healthy, thriving ewe, will frequently come in heat before she 
is a year old ; indeed, this event sometimes occurs at the age of 
six months. If, then, a ewe goes a whole year after her heats 
have begun, without conceiving, she is more likely to "miss" 
at coupling, than one which is brought to the ram younger. 

Third: The ewe's fleece is affected unfavorably, both in 
bulk and in strength of fiber, by lamb-bearing ; but this de- 
terioration occurs equally, whether she bears her first lamb at 
two, or at three years of age. At any rate, the loss is greater in 
yolk than in wool. 

Fourth : The fact is unquestionable, that the greater part of 
the lambs bom from two-year-old ewes are smaller, weaker and 
harder to winter, than those born from ewes three-year-old. 
This is my own experience, and I think it will be corroborated 
by every observing flock-master. 

Fifth : The fact that wild animals begin to reproduce their 



48 THE AMEKICAN MEEIN"0 

kind before they are mature, and yet the race does not degener- 
ate, is no criterion for the conduct of sheep husbandry ; for the 
weaker animals in a state of nature, are relentlessly weeded out 
by natural selection, by the struggle for life, and the superior 
ones are left to perpetuate the race. 

Sixth : A ewe bearing her first lamb at two years old, will 
subsequently generally become a better milker and nurse, than 
she would be if she had been withheld from service a year 
longer. 

From all these facts, the following rules may fairly be de- 
duced: In the case of a large flock, especially if the supply of 
feed is somewhat scanty, the traveling required to collect it is 
considerable, and the development of the sheep tardy, it would 
probably not be advisable to breed from two-year-olds, unless it 
might be from a very few exceptional animals, attaining at two 
years the size and maturity commonly reached only at three. 
But in a small and well-kept flock, it would generally be good 
policy to breed a majority of the ewes at two years old (leaving a 
few of slower growth, a year longer), since, in this case, they 
would probably be as large and strong as the three-year-olds in a 
great flock. Still, the two-year-old ewes ought either to receive 
richer and more succulent feed than the older ones, or their 
coupling ought to be so timed as to bring their lambing season 
on grass. 

CoNSTiTirTiON. — At the best, the sheep is a weak and frail 
animal. As the French shepherds graphically say : *' the wool 
eats it." When we consider the enormous product of fleece (in 
the best shearers running up to the wonderful figure of thirty- 
six per cent, of the live weight !), what wonder is it that such a 
draft on its system, weakens it ? It is stated by Chauveau that 
the weight of the secretions and exhalations from the yolk- 
glands and sweat-glands, in the skin of a healthy sheep, exceeds 
all the evacuations from bladder and bowels together 1 Not even 
the hog, with his two hundred per cent, increase in fat, is so 
heavily taxed every day, as the well-fleeced sheep of the Merino 
breed. It is all the while literally sweating itself to death. It 
may almost be said of the Merino, as of the silk-worm, that the 
web it spins is its death. 

How important, then, to choose for breeders only those sheep 
that have robust constitutions. Without constitution, the finest- 
fleeced sheep ever bred, is of no value as a lamb-getter, or lamb- 
bearer. 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 49 

Choose a Sheep With the Fewest Defects.— The art of 
selecting a sheep for a breeder is vouchsafed to very few men. 
As Darwin remarks : " not one man in a thousand, has accuracy 
of eye and judgment sufficient to become an eminent breeder." 
The vast majority of wool-growers, lacking the special gifts of 
Bakewell or Hammond, must be content to be able to choose 
fairly good, money-making animals. The great Vermont 
specialist might not find more than one ram in his State that 
would suit him ; another man (and perhaps too, a man capable 
of making more money), would find a thousand. 

The average wool-grower can not expect to ride a hobby, to 
"breed to points," as does the keeper of the stud-flock, the man 
with special gifts for the occupation. His great safety lies in 
selecting the animals that have the fewest defects, that are well 
and symmetrically developed. In a "Lecture on Breeding Me- 
rino Sheep," kindly sent me by the author, Henry Lane, Esq., 
of Cornwall, Vt., I find the following : 

*'The twin, three-year-old rams, exhibited and shorn by B. B. 
Tottingham & Son, Shoreham, at the public sheep shearing at 
Middlebury last spring, were in size and general appear- 
ance as near alike as twins generally are. The fiber of wool on 
one was four and one-half inches in length, on the other, three 
and three-fourths inches, a difference of three-fourths of an inch. 
The longest staple ram weighed, after shearing, one hundred and 
fourteen pounds, the shortest staple ram, one hundred and 
thirty-five pounds, a difiference of twenty-one pounds. The 
longest staple, sheared twenty-three pounds and twelve ounces, 
the shortest staple, thirty-three pounds and ten ounces, a differ- 
ence of ten pounds, less two ounces. This extra ten pounds 
came mostly from a much denser fleece. Now, you might pos- 
sibly find one breeder in twenty, whose hobby was long staple, 
that would select the longest fleeced ram, but the other nineteen 
would select the one having so many good points, to be found in 
the shortest staple ram, and that were lacking in the other." 

"Fancy." — "Breeders' fancy" is not wholly to be ignored. 
Wool on the leg is of no value, any more than cows' hair; but it is 
a point of breeders' fancy — and it is something more. It is a 
mark of blood, and therefore it is of high value. The wool on 
the upper eyelid (or, rather, on a fold of skin which doubles down 
over the eyelid, which fold is lacking in a plain sheep), is not only 
of no value, but it is a positive defect ; but it is "fancy," it 
denotes blood, and therefore it is highly esteemed. The soft, 



50 THE AMEEICAK MERIi^O 

silky face, without spot or blemish (the smallest black spot on the 
lip, face or ear, being objectionable), covered with wool to just 
such a point, making a cap rounding down with just such a 
a curve ; the ears woolled out just so far, with white, silky- 
hair the rest of the lens^th (for a woolly ear is a bad mark) ; the 
precise number of wrinkles across the nose— all these are fancy 
points, oftimes sought after, to the neglect of substantial merit ; 
but they are, nevertheless, matters of importance, because they 
are typical. Tlwy ought to he there. They show blood, culture, 
a "long descent ; " they are like the almost invisible water-marks 
which the Government incorporates in the paper upon which 
bank-bills are printed, to prevent counterfeiting. 

Influence of the Sex. — The question whether the ram or 
the ewe exercises the greater influence over the progeny, also 
whether one determines a different set of qualities from the 
other, is not of the slightest practical consequence to any wool- 
grower, except as considered under the following heading. 

PjREPOTENcr. — An animal of great force will impress itself on 
the offspring more strongly than one which is weaker. This 
power in an animal, whether male or female — for either may 
possess it — by which it marks its progeny conspicuously in its 
own likeness, is called prepotency. It is a curious fact that a 
fault, as, for instance, a deficient cap, or bare legs, will reappear in 
the lambs more persistently than a merit. It is customary to say 
that the ram is more prepotent than the ewe, but there are many 
exceptions to this rule. The ram's traits are the more generally 
remarked in a year's get of lambs, because he is one out of a hun- 
dred, chosen with the greatest care ; but if a hundred lambs, 
equally divided as to sex, were suffered to grow to maturity and 
then used as breeders, it would be found that there were, out of 
fifty, as many prepotent ewes as rams. 

But the important point is this : The ram costs less money 
than the flock of ewes, is oftener changed, and is frequently about 
the only item of expense which the farmer is willing to incur for 
the purpose of bettering his stock. More than that, if the ram is 
inferior, his faults will be reproduced many times, while in a 
ewe, they will be reproduced only once. Therefore, it is more 
important to make a careful selection of a ram than of a ewe, un- 
less — which ought to be the case— the farmer is willing to ex- 
ercise the same diligence in selecting all the breeding stock. 

There is no criterion of prepotency except use. Pedigree and 
constitution, even form, may be present without prepotency; but 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOl^. 51 

the latter can hardly exist without the first two, though it may 
without form, since it sometimes happens that a thin-shouldered 
or steep-rumped or flat-ribbed ram is powerfully prepotent. Mr. 
George B. Quinn's " Red Legs," was an instance. The only safe 
rule, therefore, is to select a ram-lamb combining the three excel- 
lences, and then test him. A good way would be to buy no ram 
without some age, and a history behind him ; but to do this might 
be more expensive than to breed and test a number of ram-lambs 
for one's-self . 

A notable instance of a potent ram perpetuating his high type 
and line of excellence for generations, is seen in Hammond's 
"Old Black," followed by ** Wooster," "Old Greasy," "Old 
Wrinkly," "Little Wrinkly," "Sweepstakes," "California," 
"Gold Drop," "Green Mountain." Sanford's " Eureka" and 
"Comet," and R. J.Jones' "All Right," have each produced a 
valuable line of prepotent rams. 

Variation. — There is a law of biology, that animals under 
domestication exhibit more variability, a greater tendency to 
"sport," in their offspring, than those in a state of nature. In 
the latter condition, they are subject to the same influences of 
climate, soil, feed, and the same habits of life, from year to year, 
and the law, " Like begets like," goes on without interruption. 
But when they pass under the dominion of mind, of intellect, the 
caprice of man, changes of ownership, changes of habits, of feed, 
of climate, interfere with the sway of heredity ; and even the 
most ancient race will now and then suddenly throw out a scion 
which is a remarkable departure from the type. 

Thus " Sweepstakes," at a bound, surpassed his sire eight and 
one-half pounds in fleece, and ten pounds in carcass, and sur- 
passed all his ancestors at least five pounds in fleece. "All 
Right " went beyond all his ancestors ten pounds in fleece, and 
at least twenty-five pounds in carcass — a remarkable variation. 

Now, when such a variation in a desirable direction occurs, it 
ought to be carefully examined before we attach too much value 
to it. Does the great gain in fleece consist in yolk or in wool? 
If it is principally in yolk, the variation may possess little or no 
value. If it is a gain in pure wool, the animal is a great ac- 
quisition. Variations in a useful direction ought to be carefully 
followed up, for thereby comes improvement. Still, it is not 
well to expect too much, for an animal departing so far from 
the standard may not be able to carry his stock with him to his 
thigh pitch of excellence. He may be what the breeders term 



52 THE AMERICAl^ MERIi^O 

an accidental sheep. The keeper of the stud-flock would by all 
means retain this accidental sheep, in the hope that he might 
produce something equal to himself, and thus take one step to- 
ward making this variation permanent. But the ordinary wool- 
grower might make a mistake, if he bought him at a price 
greatly above the average. It is quite possible that one hundred 
lambs gotten by a ram shearing thirty pounds (analogous in- 
stances have not seldom occured), might not shear as high an 
average as one hundred lambs from a ram yielding twenty 
pounds. 

It is the mission of the stud-keeper to experiment with these 
exceptional sheep; he may develop thereby a great public 
benefit. We look to him to hold up the Merino standard, and 
to advance it constantly higher and higher. But to the average 
flock-master, I would repeat and emphasize the advice, before 
given, never to place his main dependence on a ram which has 
not been tested. 

Crossing and Cross-breeding. —Prof. W. H. Brewer has so 
correctly given the general results which come from crossing, 
that I append two paragraphs from his writings : "I know of 
no case where a new breed has been made of two well-defined 
breeds, the new breed having the excellences of the others, or 
even the excellences of the fii:st cross. It is a common ex- 
perience, not only as you have shown with sheep, but with cat- 
tle, with horses, with everything so far as I know, that while 
the first or earlier crosses are reasonably uniform, successive 
crosses vary greatly. Numerous new breeds have been formed 
by the crossing of several older ones. Noel's experiments on 
the old French breeds of coarse-wooled sheep are interesting. 
The formation of the English thoroughbred horse from three 
or possibly more distinct branches of the Oriental horse ; that 
is, the Arabian, the Turk, and the Barb. The Poland China 
swine, so called, from several earlier and perhaps ill-defined 
breeds, and so on. Numerous examples can be given of new 
breeds being formed from the crosses of several, and then by 
long-continued selection of animals having the desired quaUties, 
from three several breeds ; but I know of no example where 
this has been done with only two breeds in the original stock. 

"Again, it is a common experience, particularly in breeding 
for flesh (but it is true of all characters), that in cross-bred ani- 
ma's for one or two generations, the cross breeds may be better 
as animals of use than either of the present stocks. But this 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOIsT, 53 

excellence cannot be maintained with sufficient uniformity to 
insure profit. In truth, the whole and sole reason of the enor- 
mous prices which thoroughbred animals of various kinds bring 
of a long-proved pedigree, is not because of the superior excel- 
lence of those animals themselves as animals of use, but simply 
because their characters are transmitted, and that of equally 
good mongrels are not. The crossing of different breeds of 
pheep for mutton or for particular grades of wool, will long be 
continued, and is very profitable in many directions ; but it is 
only profitable, so far as I have been able to hear, where these 
rules are obeyed, and we frequently go back to the pure breed 
on one side or on the other, or on both, for keeping up the 
excellence." 

The celebrated Improved Kentucky breed was formed by the 
anion of the native sheep with the Merino, the Leicester, the 
Southdown, the Cotswold and the Oxford-down. This is con- 
sidered one of the established and permanent breeds of the 
United States, capable of propagating itself with the certainty 
of the average thoroughbred. 

The even more celebrated Cross-bred sheep of New Zealand, 
are the result of a combination of the Merino, the Leicester, the 
Lincoln and the Cotswold. A recent writer in Agriculture, a 
London newspaper, after describing the breed, adds : 

"What to the practical breeder is still more interesting, is the 
fact that efforts have been so far successful as to establish 
large flocks in which uniformity is as prominent a character- 
istic as in the average of either of the breeds from which they 
spring. At the time of my visit (December and January) these 
had all been sheared, so that I was unable to see the fleeces out- 
side of the storage lofts, but from these I was enabled to pro- 
cure samples seven inches in length and exceeding in fineness 
anything I had deemed possible from such a cross, while much 
of the lustre so esteemed in combing wools was preserved. 
This cross-bred sheep is now so ' fixed ' in type that breeding 
animals are bought and sold with the same faith that they will 
reprodace with the uniformity attaching to the recognized 
breeds." 

Crosses between the various branches of the Merino race 
have been, in many cases, eminently successful. In fact, the 
American Merino of to-day, in its incomparable excellence, is 
the result of a fusion of the Paular and Infantado flocks, to- 
gether with others, which have become so blended as to be 
practically one race. The "Victor-Beall Delaine," the *' Black- 



54 THE AMERICAI^ MERIKO 

top," and the "Improved Saxony" — all of them worthy sub- 
families of the American, whose standing and excellence are 
established beyond the reach of cavil — are the result of crosses 
between the Spanish and Saxon. In the Eastern States, the 
attempted crosses between the French and American Merinos 
have generally resulted disastrously ; but in Southern California, 
it has been and still is, widely popular. The French gives a 
rangy carcass, and long, but rather coarse fiber, while the 
American braces up thii? somewhat shambling anatomy, with a 
heavy bone, gives density and fineness to the staple, and a 
hardy, self-supporting habit, enabling the sheep, as the Western 
men say, to "rustle " successfully for its living. In Oregon and 
California the American and Australian have been bred together 
with highly satisfactory results. In the American Sheep 
Breeder, Hon. John Minto thus speaks of this cross : 

*' There was but little difference in the size of the two strains, 
and I think there would have been no perceptible difference in 
the yield of scoured wool of first quahty in proportion to live 
weight. The Vermont sheep covered the shanks and head 
more and had much more oil in the fleece of a coarser quality. 
The Australians were more apt to give twins, and the lambs 
were more robust when dropped. After a few crosses none but 
the most expert could tell it was cross-bred sheep, the signs 
being preserved longest in the superior quality of the wool. One 
of our breeders who started with a few sheep of such a first cross, 
bred continuously toward the Vermont Spanish, and soon had 
a very uniform and very superior flock ; but classed it as j)ure 
Spanish. He sent a card of beautiful specimens to the ' Cen- 
tennial,' 1876, which the judges said was 'of very superior 
quality, much resembling Australian wool.' " 

As to crosses between the Merino and the English breeds, it 
ought to be borne in mind, that there is a radical difference be- 
tween crossing and cross-breeding, or amalgamation {metissage, 
as the French call it). The first is often profitable in special 
cases ; the second is found nearly always to be a mistake. The 
mutton breeds are not adapted to the free and wide ranging of 
the West ; they travel and scatter too much, and an admixture 
of their blood with the Merino, reduces the self-supporting 
power of the latter. Merinos are gregarious, while the English 
sheep desire to spread out widely. Another objection is, when 
this process of amalgamation is continued for any length of 
time, it destroys the uniformity of the fleece, the evenness of 
grade and density, which it is one of the foremost objects of the 



FOR WOOL AN^D MUTTOK. 55 

intelligent breeder to produceo Then, too, the English breeds 
cannot withstand the summer heat and the winter rains so well 
as the Merino ; their fleeces are too open. 

Where there is special demand for cross-bred wool or mutton, 
the unilateral cross (that is, with a pure-blooded race on each 
side) will always give more satisfactory results than the cross 
between mongrels. On the great plains of the West, where the 
grower of tlie Merino flocks desires to meet a special demand, 
and where the soil and climate are suitable, he may advantage- 
ously make one cross of pure Cots wolds or Downs on his Me- 
rinos (preferably a Merino ram with Cotswold ewes) ; but he 
should be careful to keep a reserve of pure stock constantly on 
hand, from which to make the cross afresh each year, and sell 
off all the cross-bred animals as fast as they reach maturity, 
without breeding from them. 

The testimony of the most eminent wool-growers of the 
West, among whom may be mentioned as having spoken or 
written on the subject, Mr. Benj. Flint and Mr. M. D. W. Ap 
Jones, of California ; Hon. John Minto, of Oregon ; Mr. F. W. 
Schaeffer, of Texas, and Mr, D. H, McKellar, of Australia, is 
strongly against the amalgamation in this line. But in Nebraska, 
Minnesota, Dakota, etc., on account of their nearness to the 
great mutton market of Chicago, it is regarded with more favor, 
that is the unilateral cross. 

The cross between a Merino ram and a Southdown ewe, or vice 
versa (though the latter is not so favorably regarded by practi- 
cal men, since the Southdown ewe is a better milker than the 
Merino), produces the best mutton known, with a single excep- 
tion perhaps, of the little Welsh mountain sheep. It is conceded 
to be superior to the pure Southdown mutton. The Merino, 
also, crosses kindly with the Shropshire and the other middle- 
wools. The Merino-Cotswold, if bred beyond the first year, is 
apt to have an uneven, streaky fleece ; neither are the mutton 
qualities so good as those of the Merino-Southdown. A Cotswold 
ram bred upon a Merino ewe produces the most objectionable 
cross. The ewe has not milk enough for the large lamb, even 
if she is able to give birth to it ; and it grows up leggy, light in 
the flank, gaunt and bony. 

A Merino ewe once crossed upon a British ram is not likely 
to " breed true " thereafter from a ram of her own race ; her 
progeny are apt to be marked with coarse-wool traits. 

In-Breeding. — ^This, too, is a subject which concerns the 
practical flock-master very little, especially since the famUies 



56 THE AMEEICAK MEEINO 

and strains of the Merino have become so numerous, and afford 
such a wide range to choose from. In-breeding tends to refine 
the bone, impair the coxistitution, and induce sterility. Even 
the advocates of it virtually admit this, for they say cautiously, 
that breeding '* too close" must not be continued too long. An 
eminent breeder once said : ' ' In-breeding was sure to produce 
an uncommonly good, or an uncommonly poor animal. " How- 
ever necessary in-breeding may be in the hands of a great 
specialist, to establish and perpetuate a certain desirable trait, 
the average flock-master had better avoid it altogether. Still, 
there is very little doubt, that in-breeding between the closest 
relatives, which are widely dissimilar (as a very yolky and a 
very dry-topped one), might be less injurious to the progeny 
than the crossing of two sheep exactly alike, but not related. 
Hammond recognized and acted on this principle, in keeping 
separate and distinct his *' dark or Queen line," and his " light- 
colored line," between which to take out crosses. In the old 
Saxon flocks of southern Ohio, in-breeding used to produce the 
the much-dreaded * ' kinky shoulder " wool. 

Wrinkles. — No candid breeder will deny that wrinkles are a 
great nuisance to the shearer. Why else do the fancy breeders, 
the stud-keepers of Ohio and Vermont, have to pay from 
twenty-five cents to one dollar for the shearing of a single ram ? 
1 have known a good average shearer to spend nearly half a 
day in getting the fleece off of a very wrinkly ram. Of course, 
this is an entirely exceptional case ; I cite it merely to show how 
obstructive wrinkles are to the shearer. 

But there is another respect in which they are even more 
mischievous in a flock which is not housed. The wool between 
the wrinkles, and even the skin, in hot, wet weather, becomes 
parboiled ; a quantity of rancid yolk accumulates there, and 
becomes a home for flies and maggots. A very wrinkly sheep 
is not fit to run in the rain. 

A high-bred lamb, when born, has a fine, soft, spider-web 
crinkle in the skin, running all over the body, which disappears 
in full fleece ; that is, it creates no ripple in the exterior of the 
fleece. It is still there, however, but gradually disappears with 
advancing years. But this sort of wrinkle, so far from being 
objectionable, is a point of merit. 

A very wrinkly sheep is generally slower of development and 
maturity than a plain one. Thus, in a party of seven two-year- 
old ewes, Vermont-registered, owned by Mr. L. W. Skipton, of 
Washington County, Ohio, No. 159, a very heavily marked but 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 



57 







58 THE AMERICAN MERIl!;rO 

undersized ewe, cut twenty pounds and two ounces ; while No. 
163, a plain ewe, but at least ten pounds heavier than the other, 
yielded twenty pounds and fourteen ounces. But the pro- 
prietor insisted that she had beaten the wrinkly ewe for the 
last time. 

A very wrinkly sheep, seldom, if ever, yields a fiber long 
enough to be classed as delaine. This fact is illustrated by the 
high percentage of delaine wool in the clips of Messrs. R. and 
A. F. Breckenridge, of Brown's Mills, Ohio, who breed pure- 
blood Merinos notable for their plainness. On the other hand, 
Mr. C. C. Smith, of Waterford, is equally well-known for the 
heavily folded type of his pure-bloods ; but, for his out-door 
wool-bearing flocks, he uses rams of medium wrinkliness, and 
he shears also a high percentage of delaine wool. 

This fact, however, would not absolutely turn the scale in 
favor of a plain sheep over a wrinkly one, for delaine wool 
commands very little, if any, higher price than a clip of ordi- 
nary length, other quahties being equal, unless the prevailing 
type of wool throughout a large section of country is delaine. 
If there is a delaine "fashion," there will be a delaine price, 
but not otherwise, at least not until a time arrives when every 
clip is much more carefully graded and individualized than it is 
at present. 

But there is a fact which works powerfully against wrinkly 
Merinos ; and that is, that buyers and feeders discriminate 
against them, on account of the *' sheepy" mutton which they 
yield. I am credibly informed that the butchers of Baltimore 
stigmatize them as '* leather hides," and that prominent dealers, 
like S. Frankenstein and W. Finn, of that city, demand a con- 
cession of one-half to one cent a pound on very wrinkly sheep. 

In sheep highly developed, the skin accumulates on the body 
to such a degree that a fold sometimes forms over the eye, and 
causes the eyelid to turn under and irritate the ball. This has 
been held to be a great objection to wrinkly sheep, but it can 
be remedied by a simple operation. With a pair of sheep- 
shears a piece of skin half or three-fourths of an inch long and 
a quarter of an inch wide (or narrower, if the case is not bad), 
is snipped out of the eyelid, lengthwise of the eye, and just far 
enough back from the eyelashes not to interfere with their 
roots. The cut being shallow, very Httle, if any, blood will 
flow from it. In healing the skin shrinks, and the eyelid ia 
turned right side out again. 



rOE WOOL AKD MUTTOif, 



39 



CHAPTER VI 



FEED. 



Of the three departments of sheep husbandry, the most im- 
portant is feeding. Blood and breeding may be compared to 
the field and line officers of the army, but feed is the common 
soldier. And, as in all well-regulated armies the officers come 
up out of the ranks by promotion, so, in respect to sheep ; the 
blood of a thousand years, the longest and most celebrated 
pedigree, is after all, nothing but the outcome of good feeding. 
For under the term "feed" should properly be included care, 
management, choice of soils, etc. 

The skillful breeder can select an animal with consummate 
insight into its good points (blood) ; but he cannot change its 
former fleece one iota except by combination with another 
sheep (breeding), and especially by care and management (feed- 
ing). In fact. Nature makes all the changes herself ; man only 
supplies the conditions. Good feeding simply gives Nature or 
heredity a chance to do her best. 

The coarse grasses and the roving, careless, "rustling" life 
of the Far West develop muscle, but weaken the fiber, and 
heredity tends to perpetuate these ; but the rich pastures, the 
fragrant hay-racks and the faithful daily care of Ohio, produce 
a strong, uniform and yet fine staple. 

A Perfect Feed. — Nature has given us the formula for a 
perfect feed for the domestic animals. This is furnished in 
grass of different kinds, as seen by the following table, which 
gives the constituents of the principal pasture grasses and 
clover : 



100 parU. 


Water. 


Albumi- 
noids. 


Fat. 


Carbo- 
hydrates. 


Woody 
fiber. 


Ash. 


Timothy 


57.21 
70.00 
58.85 
76.00 


4.86 
4.06 
4.59 
2.00 


1.50 
.9i 
.94 


23.85 

13.30 

20.05 

7.00 


11.82 
10.11 
13.03 
13.9 


2 26 


Orchard-grass 

Barley-grass 

Red clover 


1.59 
2.54 
1.00 



The red clover and the orchard grass are rather watery, as 
every farmer knows ; the best formula perhaps is that of the 
timothy. Counting the albuminoids as flesh-formers, and the 
carbo-hydrates (sugar, gum, starch) as fat-formers, and includ- 
ing with the latter half the woody fiber and all the fat (one 



60 



THE AMERrCAIf MERIKO 



pound of which is equivalent to 2.44 of starch or sugar), we 
have a total of 4.86 flesh- formers and 31.88 fat-formers. This 
gives an albuminoid or flesh-forming ratio of about 1:6.5. 

Now, if the ingenuity of man could devise a feed as good as 
gi-ass, it would leave nothing to be desired. The dried grass or 
hay is not such a feed ; because, although v^e have abstracted 
from it nothing but the water, its magical quahty is gone ; it 
no longer possesses either the same nourishing or the same 
fattening properties. 

Most of the nitrogen of feed is in the albuminoids, and both 
science and experience have taught that animals must have a 
certain ratio of nitrogenous matter to do weU. But these nitro- 
genous matters are the most expensive element of feed (in most 
cases, though the commercial value is not always correctly ad- 
justed) ; hence it behooves the farmer to know about what pro- 
portions of grain and hay it is most profitable to give to his 
sheep. If either the flesh-formers or the fat-formers are in ox- 
cess of the formula above indicated by grass, the excess is 
practically wasted. It requires fixed amounts of oil and lye to 
make soap — to use a homely comparison — so it takes approxi- 
mately measured proportions of the above named elements to 
feed stock advantageously. 

The Basis of Feed. — First, let us consider the basis or 
groundwork of feed, which, of course, is always some one or 
more of the varieties of hay, straw, etc. : 



i« 100 parte. 


Water. 


Ash. 


Total or- 
ganic 
matter. 


Flesh 
formers. 


Fat 
formers. 


Crude 
fiber. 


Meadow hay 


14.3 


6.2 


79.5 


8.2 


41.3 


30.0 


Red clover hay 


16.7 


6.2 


77.1 


13.4 


29.9 


35.8 


Pea straw 


14.3 


4.0 


81.7 


6.5 


35.2 


40.0 


Bean straw .... 


17.3 


5.0 


77.7 


10.3 


33.5 


34.0 


Wheat straw 


14.3 


5.5 


80.0 


2.0 


30.2 


48.0 


Rye straw 


14.2 


3.2 


82.5 


1.5 


27.0 


54.0 


Barley straw 


14.3 


7.0 


78.7 


3.0 


32.7 


48. 




14.3 
14.0 


5.0 

4.0 


80.7 
82.0 


2.5 
3.0 


38.2 
39.0 


40.0 


Corn fodder 


40.0 



Taking meadow hay first, we find that it has 8.2 of flesh- 
formers to 63.8 fat-formers, or an albuminoid ratio of 1:8, which 
falls little below the correct formula. And we know from ex- 
perience that thoroughly good meadow hay will of itself many 
times support sheep in fair condition. But, taking wheat straw, 
we find it has an albuminoid ratio of about 1 :29, which makes 
it a very poor article of feed. 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTON". 61 

Grain Feeds. — To supplement this, we must have recourse 
to something richer in albuminoids. By far the most common 
grain-feed throughout the United States is Indian corn. But 
corn itself is not rich enough to make good the deficiencies of 
wheat straw. Tlie composition of one hundred parts of corn is 
as follows : Flesh-formers, 10.0 ; total fat-formers (counting one 
part fat or oil equal to 2.44 of starch, sugar or gum), 75.8 ; 
woody fiber, 5.5 ; ash or mineral matters, 2.1 ; water, 14.4. In 
digestion the starch, sugar and gum are converted into fat or oil, 
and this, together with the vegetable oil existing in the feed, 
go to support respiration in the animal, and to the formation of 
fat. As to the woody fiber, it is known that a very consider- 
able part of it is digested by an animal which performs masti- 
cation thoroughly, and has a vigorous stomach. The sheep will 
digest half or two-thirds of it. 

What, then, do we find as the albuminoid ratio of corn? 
Flesh-formers, 10.0. Total fat-formers (sugar, starch, gum, 
oil=75.8 ; woody fiber, say 3.0 ; ash, 1.0), 79.8. This gives corn, 
therefore, an albuminoid ratio of 1:8, about. Now, let us add 
the wheat straw and corn together. We will suppose that one 
hundred pounds of corn are given to the sheep along with four 
hundred pounds of straw. Adding together the two terms 
of the proportion, we find the albuminoid ratio of the corn and 
straw together, to be 1:18.5. Manifestly this is too poor. The 
sheep must consume too large an amount of straw to obtain the 
necessary percentage of albuminoids, the excess of flesh-formers 
and woody fiber going to waste, that is, passing undigested. 

The farmer in practice can partially remedy this by giving more 
corn and less straw, but he can do still better by using another 
kind of feed, for instance, Cotton-seed meal. The composition 
of one hundred parts of this is as follows : Water, 8.3 ; flesh- 
formers, 41.0 ; fat-formers, 33.4 ; woody fiber, 9.0 ; ash, 8.3. Of 
the fat formers, sixteen parts consist of oil, which is equivalent 
to 38.4 of sugar or starch ; hence the total of fat-formers (adding 
half of the ash and woody fiber), is 64.5. This gives an albumi- 
noid ratio of 1 :1.57. Straw and cotton-seed meal together have 
an albuminoid ratio of 1:15, which is more nearly correct than 
that of the straw and corn. One hundred pounds of cotton- 
seed, therefore, has a higher value for feeding in connection 
with straw (or, for that matter, with any coarse feed), than one 
hundred pounds of corn. It will be for the farmer to determine 
whether it would not be good policy for him to sell his corn and 
buy cotton-seed. 



62 THE AMEEICA^J- MEEI2!fO 

Value op Analytical Tables.— All these calculations as to 
the value of different feeds and grains, however, are like the 
tables of values given for commercial fertilizers. The Govern- 
ment or State chemist works out the value in dollars and cents 
of so much nitrogen, so much phosphoric acid, so much hme, 
etc. But there is an infinite number of soils, and an infinite 
variety of circumstances under which these fertilizers are ap- 
plied, all of which tend to bring different results and sometimes 
seem to belie absolutely the chemist's analysis. No judicious 
farmer will depend at all on these arithmetical values of hay 
and grain, except in this way : He will consult them to get a 
general idea of their comparative richness to start on, then he 
will adjust his feed-rations somewhat nearly as they indicate, 
and thoroughly scrutinize the outcome. No sea-captain will 
neglect his charts, but he will keep a most vigilant lookout for 
rocks and coasts and icebergs, nevertheless. 

Roots. — Probably the most remarkable instance of the dan- 
ger of depending on these tables without the " light of experi- 
ence " to guide us, is afforded by the ' ' nutritive values " of 
roots. The chemist gives a turnip such a high percentage of 
*' water," and yet we know from practice that, when given in 
connection with dry feed, it has such a marked value, that it is 
a mere waste of space to print the ' ' nutritive equivalents " of 
roots for the guidance of a practical feeder. When taken into 
the sheep's stomach, there is something in the water of a gugar- 
beet, as there is in the water of grass, which belies all chem- 
istry. 

The chief point of excellence claimed for roots is, that they 
supply the amount of water which all animals need when on 
dry feed, in a moderate and gradual way. If cut or pulped and 
mixed with bran, oats, or mill-feed, they furnish a soft, semi- 
liquid mass, which does not irritate the coats of the stomach, 
and does not overload it or dilute its solvent juices as a copious 
draught of cold water taken all at once would be apt to do. 
There is force in this argument. Sheep ought to be compelled, 
as much as possible, to eat their feed dry, as the saliva thereby 
secreted and mingled with it is of far more efficacy in assisting 
the stomach in digestion than any juice of roots, or any other 
moisture could be ; still, it is undoubtedly injurious to the 
sheep to be obhged to drink at one time all the water it requires 
in twenty-four hours, especially if it is ice-cold. 

Roots are not so necessary for Merinos as they are for the 
mutton-breeds ; they are principally useful for ewes when giv- 



FOR WOOL A^D MUTTOK. 



63 



ing milk, and for a short period before they begin. Sugar- 
beets, mangels, ruta-bagas, yellow turnips, white turnips, are 
valuable in the order in which they are here given. 

Mixed Feeds. — There are two cardinal principles in relation 
to mixed feed ; first, that mixed feeds are better than plain ; 
second, that all the elements of the mixture should be fed each 
day, instead of one element for one day or one week, and an- 
other for another day or week. Thus, for instance, the experi- 
ments at Rothamstead, England, showed that eight pounds of 
peas would make a pound of live weight, or six pounds of oil- 
cake meal ; while, of peas and oil-cake meal mixed, four and 
one-half pounds would suffice. It is as an element of mixed 
feed that roots attain their greatest value. Thus, in a great 
majority of cases, it will be found that a sheep receiving three 
pounds of bright wheat straw, and six pounds of turnips per 
day, will increase as much in weight, or keep in as good con- 
dition, as another receiving three pounds of the best timothy 
hay ; while the latter ration will be the less expensive of the 
two. 

Amount of Feed Per Sheep.— It has been ascertained that 
to keep a sheep in good thriving condition, fifteen pounds of 
perfectly dry feed (of average good quality), is required per 
week for each one hundred pounds of live weight. But since 
hay and grain, in their ordinary condition, contain about four- 
teen per cent, of water, from eighteen to twenty pounds per 
week will be necessary, or about three pounds per day. To 
facilitate digestion and prevent constipation, it would be well 
if an equivalent of this amount of nutriment could be expanded 
in bulk, so as to weigh seven or eight pounds. 

Practical Correlation of Feeds. — In the following table 
I have given the albuminoid ratios of several varieties of feed, 
singly and combined, as a hint to the practical feeder : 



Ratio. 



Ratio. 



Together. 



Corn , 

Oats 

Rye 

Barley 

Cotton-seed . . , 
Linseed cake.. 
Wheat bran. . , 
Shorts 



1:7.5 
1:5.7 
1:5.2 

lr7.4 

1:1.6 
1:3.3 
1:4.2 
1:5.8 



Meadow hay. 
Clover hay. 



Wheat straw 
Corn fodder 



1:8 
1:4.2 



1:29 
1:12.4 



1:7.8 
1:4.5 



1:15.3 
1:8.3 



From this we see that oats and clover hay would be a com- 



64 THE AMEEICAK MEEIi^O 

bination too rich in albuminoids, some of which would be con- 
verted in the stomach into carbo-hydrates ; consequently the 
farmer who should give these feeds together would not be pur- 
suing an economical course, unless it was young lambs or ewes 
giving milk which he was feeding. For either of these classes 
of sheep it would be an admirable combination ; but to mature 
stock-sheep, or even to fattening wethers, he would do better 
to give meadow hay, and with it com, or cotton-seed, or lin- 
seed-cake meal. Another fact revealed by this table is, that 
wheat bran is better, weight for weight, for young lambs and 
suckling ewes, than corn meal — so much better that, in most 
cases, it would probably pay the farmer to exchange his meal 
for bran, even if he had to transport it some distance. 

If the bran has been ground by the "new process," it is not 
so rich in starch as old-fashioned bran was, but richer in pro- 
teine. Linseed-cake meal, owing to improved machinery and 
the higher degree of pressure now employed in extracting the 
oil, has only six to nine per cent, of oil (sometimes only two 
and one-half), where it used to have ten to twelve. But this 
actually increases its albuminoid ratio (which gives it its great 
value) ; does not diminish the proportion of mucilage and di- 
gestible fiber ; and the hard-pressed cakes keep better than those 
which were more loosely made under the old process. 

Experiments in Feeding.— But, after all that the most care- 
ful scientific investigators may ascertain for our guidance, there 
is nothing equal in value to actual experience, what might be 
called the testimony of the sheep. M. Moll, a noted French 
writer, thinks f»ne-wooled sheep reach their best estate in the 
region of the vine and the mulberry. In America, I would sub- 
stitute for this the latitudes adapted to Indian corn. This is 
to the Western farmer what the turnip is to the English shep- 
herd. 

My experience for years in feeding sheep on fodder (which is 
better every way than fodder-corn, except for nursing ewes), 
has given me the highest opinion of its value for this purpose. 
The silk-worm-like closeness with which they pick every shred 
of the foliage from the canes obviates the necessity of cutting 
the stalks, which is an operation of dubious profitableness with 
the coarse Western corn. Besides that, fodder has a most ad- 
mirable effect on the respiratory and circulatory systems. A 
horse may often be cured of a mild case of heaves by the sub- 
stitution of fodder for hay in his manger. Thus, by quicken- 
ing and stimulating the circulation, fodder is a better feed than 



FOR WOOL AND mutto:n'. 65 

hay for increasing the wool product. It is more laxative than 
timothy or any other hay, except clover. A perfect ration for 
sheep should include at least one daily feed of bright fodder ; it 
is far preferable to rye and (bearded) wheat straw, the beards of 
which are liable to cause great irritation to the coats of the 
stomach. 

One winter I fed a flock of two hundred and twenty-five 
youQg sheep, mostly yearlings, one and a half bushels of shelled 
corn and eighteen bundles of fodder per day. With a run of 
two or three hours a day on an old sod, they wintered remark- 
ably well. The current local price for fodder is ten cents a 
shock of eighty hills. Planted in rows three feet ten inches 
apart, there would be thirty-three and four-fifth shocks to the 
acre. Four bundles make a shock. The fodder on an acre is 
worth |3.38. The flock consumes forty-five cents' worth per 
day. Of corn, at forty cents a bushel, they require sixty cents' 
worth per day. They are fed, say, four and a half months (this 
will allow for the diminished ration at the beginning and end 
of tne season). This will make their winter's supply of fodder 
cost $60.75, and their corn $81 ; total, $141.75. This flock would 
have required three hundred pounds of hay per day, which, at 
$10 a toD, would be worth $1.50. Against this, the daily ration 
of fodder and corn cost $1.05. 

The best way to employ wheat straw for sheep is in connec- 
tion with fodder, details of which are given in the chapter on 
"Winter Management." 

Mr. Arvine C. Wales, of Stark County, Ohio, who grew annu- 
ally about seventy acres of fodder corn for sheep, gave in The 
Shepherd's National Journal, the following experience : 

"I selected out three hundred ewes, and divided them into 
two lots as evenly as I could. One hundred and fifty were put 
into one shed, and a like number into a shed near by. Between 
the two sheds there was a set of stock scales. Each lot of sheep 
was carefully weighed at the beginning of the experiment, and 
were weighed again each week for eight weeks. During the 
continuance of the experiment I was asking questions for my 
own information, and had no interest except to get at the truth. 
One lot of sheep was fed with one feed per day of good clover 
and timothy hay, and one feed of sheaf oats. The other lot re- 
ceived two feeds of the fodder corn, which I cut up by horse- 
power, mixed with a bushel and a half of bran . I poured hot 
water over it and let it soak from morning until evening, or 
from evening until morning. I have not the minutes of these 



66 THE AMERICA]!^ MERINO 

experiments before me, but I remember that the sheep fed on 
the fodder corn showed a marked gain over the other lot. The 
dung was about of the consistence of that of sheep on dryish 
pasture. They drank very little water, and I thought the 
growth of wool was healthier and stronger than that on the 
other lot." 

In the Far West the question of a feed-supply is becoming 
yearly of more pressing importance. Those vast regions are 
fitted for pastoral pursuits ; they will be the stronghold and 
refuge of the American Merino. But some artificial provision 
of feed must be made for the occasional heavy snow-storm, or 
else the wools of those regions will continue to be "jointed," 
untrue, unfit for combing purposes, and falling ten to twenty 
per cent, below the price they might by good management be 
made to command, 

Prairie hay is generally excellent from most localities ; not 
surpassed by that made from cultivated grasses. These natural 
meadows can be cheaply enclosed with ware and iron posts. 
Great hay-barracks, like those of Northern California, holding 
two hundred and fifty to three hundred tons each, could be 
made with iron roofing and siding. If not filled in one year, 
they could be in two or three ; then they would be ready for an 
emergency. 

Alfalfa is full of promise to the Western flock-master. It 
was the growing of Alfalfa in California which checked the 
flow of sheep from that State to Colorado. A hundred days' 
feeding on Alfalfa, with a half-pound of oats per head, daily, 
makes very fat sheep and exceptionally sweet, tender mutton. 
It will completely remove from the flesh the flavor of the Black 
Sage, and other offensive shrubs and plants of the West. It is 
sometimes slightly productive of scours and hoven, if allowed 
to grow too rank before the sheep are turned on it ; but lumps of 
rock-salt kept constantly within reach of the flock, have been 
found in Cahfornia to be a preventive of these troubles. Ber- 
muda grass, so common and so dreaded by the cotton-planters 
of the South, has been found to succeed in alkali soil, even 
where the deposit was very strong — and this grass is admirable 
for sheep. 

The Sheep Needs Mineral Matters.— The art of feeding 
takes account of all that the sheep requires to promote its 
health and growth. Not only the feed, but the water must be 
considered. The sheep needs a large proportion of mineral 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTONT. 6? 

matter, either in its feed or in the water. Fi^e per cent of 
clean wool is sulphur ; two per cent of the sheep's urine is 
mineral ; thirteen and one-half per cent of the dung is mineral ; 
the bones contain sixty to seventy per cent of phosphate and 
carbonate of lime ; the yolk has a large proportion of potash, 
and the flesh and blood contain the following mineral sub- 
stances : Phosphorus, sodium, potassium, chlurine, magnesia, 
iron and lime. The bones of the sheep contain eleven per cent 
more of the carbonate of lime than those of the ox, five per 
cent more of the phosphate of lime, and a fraction more of 
magnesia, lime, potash, etc. This shows the necessity of sup- 
plying the sheep with mineral matters. Soft water is not so 
healthful and nourishing to a flock as hard water. The health- 
iest flock I think I ever saw was one on the Nascimiento Eiver, 
in California, which had no water to drink during the six 
months' drought of summer, except that from some strong 
sulphur springs in the bed of the river. Ashes, lime, sulphur, 
copperas, in small quantities, form an excellent addition to 
their salt. On the great alkali plains of the Far West sheep 
frequently have to be kept away from alkali ponds and de- 
posits ; they eat so much of it as to do them harm, though 
perhaps they would not, if allowed to visit them often and 
regularly. 



CHAPTER VII. 
PASTURE IN THE WEST. 

In subsequent chapters detached notes are given on the 
grasses peculiar to the regions west of the Mississippi ; but it 
may be well to present here a condensed view of the various 
grasses, plants and shrubs, with which the shepherd has to do 
throughout the United States. 

The grasses of the East, both wild and cultivated, generally 
form an unbroken turf ; but those of the remote West seem to 
protect themselves against the great aridity of the climate by 
growing in bunches or tufts, with the spaces between either 
naked, or overgrown with weeds. Hence the popular name, 
"Bunch-grass," which is extremely indefinite, describing noth- 
ing except the habit of growth, and applied to several different 



68 THE AMEEICAX MER1]S'0 

Bpecies. The grasses of the great arid region are scanty, but 
are mostly sweet and nutritious, both for summer and winter 
grazing. A considerable part of their value arises from their 
greater richness in seed than the Eastern grasses. The winter 
aridity is so great, generally, and the stems of the grasses so 
stiff and strong that, when touched by frost, they do not be- 
come broken down by the rains and snows to decay on the 
moist soil, but stand firmly on the ground all winter long and 
*' cure," forming a sort of uncut hay. 

To a considerable degree, the greater or less abundance of the 
grasses is dejDendent on latitude and altitude ; the higher the 
latitude, the better are the grasses, and they improve as the al- 
titude increases. In the mid-continental region, in low altitudes 
and latitudes, the grasses are so scanty as to be of little or no 
value ; here the true deserts occur. Also, on the Atlantic slope 
of the Rocky Mountains (especially the eastern part of it) and 
on the Pacific cost, the grasses are coarser than those of the 
great central basin. In the prairie section, proper, the native 
grasses are coarse and rough ; they have to be kept closely de- 
pastured, or they become unpalatable to sheep. They form a 
very fair article of hay, often scarcely inferior to Eastern hay ; 
but the leaves are so harsh that they frequently give sore mouths 
to the sheep. These grasses are also rather susceptible to frost ; 
in the latitude of Southern Kansas they are generally cut off by 
November 1, thereafter becoming " dry feed." 

On the Pacific Coast, several of the more important grasses 
are noted for their rankness of growth and their prolificacy in 
seeds, these constituting a large share of their value. Further- 
more, being annuals, they depend on their seeds for propaga- 
tion, and the consumption of these by sheep curtails their 
volume from year to year. 

The finer and sweeter perennial grasses which are more char- 
acteristic of the central continental region are better suited for 
sheep, though the available pasturage areas are much lessened 
by low alkali and sandy deserts, on the one hand, and by rocky, 
broken mountain chains, on the other. 

East of the Mississippi the Blue-grass or June grass {Poa pra- 
tensis) is, of all the grasses, cultivated or self sown, the best for 
sheep, and it is likewise the most widely spread. It yields a 
scanty crop of hay, but it grows so early and so late, makes so 
tough a sod, is so rich and so eagerly sought after by sheep, 
that it is always good policy to allow it to take possession of a 
considerable part of the land devoted to pasture. P. compressa 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOl^. 69 

is the Wire-grass ; in Ohio it is better for pasture than the June 
grass. P. annua has become naturalized in many parts of the 
South. In Northern Texas it becomes a bright green in the fall, 
withstands the cold better than other grasses ; in February and 
March makes a strong growth and furnishes good grazing when 
no other grass does ; but it does not resist drought well in the 
summer. It is highly relished by sheep, but is so small that it 
is chiefly valuable in the winter. P. serotina, False red-top, is 
found in Oregon and the Rocky Mountains ; eastward to the 
Atlantic it is common where the soil is moist. The Kentucky 
Blue-grass is becoming common in California and the Rocky 
Mountains. P. alpina is found in the Sierra Nevada and the 
Rocky Mountains, nearly up to the line of perpetual snow. P. 
tenuifoUa is one of the valuable bunch-grasses of the West. 

Timothy becomes naturalized wherever the soil and climate 
permit ; it is already sown and is common through the moun- 
tains and in irrigated districts quite across the continent. In 
the Far West it is too valuable for hay to be grazed much ; 
sheep would destroy it. 

Buclilo'e dactyloides is the celebrated Buffalo-grass, one of the 
most nutritious grasses of the West. It is short, curly, and in- 
creases by runners as well as by seed and root. In Texas it 
is sometimes called " Vining Mesquite." It belongs to the dry 
and elevated plateaus from the Rocky Mountains to Kansas, and 
from Mexico to British America. 

Bouteloua oligostachya is the true Grama-grass, so called from 
Texas to Arizona, Southern California and Colorado, but known 
under other names north of Colorado, as far up as Montana. 
B. hirsuta is the Black Grama, with about the same range as the 
above, but not reaching California. Both are of the highest 
value, especially in Southern New Mexico and Arizona, where 
the " Grama Belt " is celebrated for fattening stock like grain. 

Andropogon scoparius, Sage-grass, Broom-grass, forms twenty 
per cent of the pasture in parts of Kansas, and ranges, east of 
the Rocky Mountains, as far south as Texas. A. furcatus, Blue- 
stem, or Blue-joint, constitues forty per cent of the pasture in 
some places in Kansas. These and others are good fattening 
grasses. 

Stipa occidentalis is a common bunch-grass in the Sierra 
Nevada, and S. comata in Montana. Both are valuable for 
sheep. 

Munroa squarrosa Is a low, nutritious " Buffalo-grass," in the 



70 THE AMERICAN MEEIIS^O 

north, and a "Grama-grass" in Texas. It originally covered 
tracts of thousands of acres together on the northern plains. 

Festuca is a very large genus, of much value, following sheep 
and cattle wherever they go. F. ovina, Sheep's Fescue, is com- 
mon in the cooler parts, from California and Montana to the 
Atlantic ; it is one of the best of grasses for sheep, and has fol- 
lowed them around the earth, even to New Zealand, Australia 
and Tasmania. Among the native species of value are F. occi- 
dentalis, in Oregon, and F. scahrella, from California to the 
Rocky Mountains. 

Hilaria rigida, known as '" Gallotte "or " Galletta" (perhaps 
the same as the " Gietta-grass " of Arizona), forms a large part 
of the pasture on the semi-deserts of San Bernardino County, 
California. It is a hard grass, but valuable. 

Calamagrostis Canadensis is perhaps best entitled to the 
name * * Blue- joint," of aU the various grasses so-called. Its 
range is rather northerly and mountainous, from California to 
the Atlantic. It is a favorite grass for hay, and it stands so 
erect in winter that it is one of the chief supplies for sheep in a 
deep snow. 

Eriocoma cuspidata, the Sand-grass of Utah, is a very nutri- 
tious, valley bunch-grass. 

Sporoholus airoides, known in Utah as " Vilfa," is a lowland 
grass, remarkable for its power of taking up alkali, which gives 
the whole plant a salty taste. Cattle are injured by it at first, 
but sheep not so much. 

Aira ccespitosa, a red-topped grass, is found in the arid re- 
gion, surrounding the small lakes and tarns, sometimes at an 
elevation of eleven thousand feet ; it forms a continuous sod, 
and is a very beautiful and valuable grass. 

The chief grasses of the elevated timber tracts belong to the 
genus Bromus ; when young they are tender and good, but with 
age they become tough and worthless. 

Agrostis vidgaris, common Red-top, follows cattle and sheep 
in the cooler regions ; always valuable. 

Atropis tenuifoHa is one of the most valuable bunch-grasses 
from San Diego to Oregon, and Colorado. 

Hordeum murinum, the odious Squirrel-grass or Foxtail-grass 
of California. When the heads ripen they break up and the barbed 
seeds and awns work into the wool, and even into the flesh of 
sheep, in some places killing many lambs ; they get into the 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOIJ- 71 

eyes and injure or destroy the sight. It is one of the worat 
vegetable pests of California. 

Muhlenhergia gracillina is another of the species commonly, 
but incorrectly, called Butfalo-grass ; it is a low, nutritious 
grass, common, on the plateaus from Colorado to Texas. 

Of clover {Trifolium) there are five species east of the IvTissis- 
sippi, while west of it there are some forty, of which twenty- 
five are found in California alone. Only one (T. Andersonii), is 
not eaten by stock. The burs of the bur- clover {Medicago denti- 
cidata), furnish sheep a large amount of rich, oily seed, but 
they work into the wool and compel flock-masters to shear in 
the fall to get rid of them. Indeed, it is believed that sheep 
have thus been the vehicle for its dissemination in regions 
where it was unknown before. 

Alfileria or Pin-clover {Erodium Cicutarium), is a valuable 
forage plant which follows cultivation. It furnishes a heavy 
swath on lowlands ; the hay is black and becomes much broken 
and chaffy, but is very nutritious. 

Over many of the drier sections of the interior, various shrubs 
form a notable feed in the winter. Prominent among these is 
the celebrated '' White Sage,'* or, as it is sometimes called, 
"Winter Fat" (Eurotia lanata), which ranges from the Sas- 
katchawan to New Mexico, and from the Sierra Nevada to the 
Rocky Mountains. After frosts come its quality is improved 
as is true of other shrubs of the same order (Chenopodiacece), 
and it is a valuable winter forage m many places in the Great 
Basin. Other species are here and there called white sage, but 
this is the one par excellence. 

The name " Greasewood " is applied to a considerable number 
of plants. The most common ones, however, are the Sarcobatus 
vermiculatus and Abione canescens, both more or less thorny 
shrubs and looking most unpromising as forage, but which 
nevertheless have considerable value. Purshia tridentata is 
also widely known as greasewood, and is eaten by stock, and so 
are a number of other species less common and of less value. 

The Mesquite {Prosopis juliflora) grows as a shrub or small 
tree on the dry slopes and mesas from Texas to California, and 
produces a crop of sweetish pods, four, six or more inches long, 
and each containing numerous bean-like seeds. Both the pods 
and the seeds are eagerly eaten by stock, and are very nutritious. 

"Sage" is a name given by the early mountaineers to the 
shrubby species of Artemisia found so abundantly from the 



72 THE AMERICAI^ MERIJTO 

plains to the Pacific. There are many species of this genus, 

bitter, strong smelling, and belonging to dry regions. But the 
name has come to have a wider use among stockmen, and be- 
sides the white sage we have yellow sage, red sage, black sage, 
rabbit sage, etc., applied to various species of shrubs, some of 
which are eaten by stock in extremity, others more willingly, 
but taken as a whole there is not much dependence upon browse 
feed, except with the white sage, although in many places it 
forms an element not to be entirely ignored. 



CHAPTER VII I. 
A MUTTON MERINO. 

One of the great needs of American diversified agriculture is, 
a general-purpose sheep. There are few farms in the United 
States which would not be the. better for having some sheep 
upon them. They eat the refuse feed, and they manure the 
ground. Sheep manure, on account of its richness in silica, 
will make wheat grow stout and short, with heavy heads, where 
other manures produce long, soft straw, and not so solid heads. 
It is also excellent for com. "Where clover can be started and 
pastured by sheep, or fed to them, almost any worn-out land 
can be reclaimed in a few years. 

The Enghsh sheep in America stands on a Merino platform. 
The sheep of the United States are ninety-five per cent Merinos ; 
and they sustain the great wool and mutton substructure of the 
country, on which the British sheep can stand and show an ex- 
traordinary profit from the sale of early mutton lambs. He 
who sells lambs cuts the throat of his flock. The people of 
England for several years past, have had to abstain from lamb- 
mutton, in order to rebuild the wasted flocks of the Island. 
Relegating to the Merino the great foundation- work of sheep 
husbandry — mature mutton and wool — the breeder of the 
British races in this country, working on a vast body of cheap 
Merino ewes, devotes himself to the exceptional and necessarily 
suicidal industry of rearing early lambs, and makes exceptional 
profits. 

But what does the British sheep do when standing on his own 



FOR WOOL A^D MUTTOT^. 73 

platform ? America is a Merino country (and always will be for 
that matter), while England is a mutton country ; yet, accord- 
ing to that excellent authority, Mr. H. Stewart, the average 
annual revenue derived from a sheep in England is $1.17 ; in 
the United States, |2.16 ! This, too, in 1866, before the bars of 
the tariff were put up. 

The Cotswold and the Downs are summer sheep, but the 
Merino is a dry feeder. Prof. J. W. Sanborn fed twenty-three 
Cotswolds and eleven Merinos for fourteen days, at two different 
times. The first time the Cotswolds ate three per cent of their 
live weight, daily, and the Merinos 3.9 per cent. The second 
time, the Cotswolds ate 2.8 per cent of their live weight ; the 
Merinos 3.5. In a letter to myself, he says simply: '-Both 
gained similarly." This does not matter, however ; the greater 
gain and value of wool in the Merinos doubtless compensated 
for their larger ration. The main point is — the Merino is the 
better dry feeder. 

Mr. W. D. Grout, a feeder of many years' experience, says in 
the Ohio Farmer : *'I feed different classes of sheep almost 
every winter, and find that no other sort takes to feed so kindly, 
and fattens so rapidly ****** if i have long-wooled 
sheep to feed, I invariably turn them off early in the winter ; 
but I believe I have never been fortunate enough to escape hav- 
ing some culls from coarse sheep." 

In the winter of 1882-3, Hon. William G. Kirby, of Kalama- 
zoo County, Michigan, fattened about one thousand wethers, of 
which a small number were Merinos. They were shorn in April 
and sold for the English market. The Merinos brought the fol- 
lowing amounts per head : 

13f pounds wool @ 33 cents $4.54 

130 pounds mutton @ 6i cents 8.12 

$12.66 

The account, in the American Sheep-Breeder, simply adds : 
*' The weights attained by the Merino wethers as given above, 
though exceeded by the larger mutton breeds shearing com- 
paratively light fleeces, were heavy enough to bring the top 
price, and in Mr. Kirby 's opinion were grown and fed at a 
greater profit than any other of the one thousand head, which 
numbered equally choice specimens of the mutton breeds." 

In the winter of 1874-5, Mr. O. M. Watkins, of Onondaga 
Co., N. Y., fed two hundred and ninety sheep, of which one 
liundred were Merinos, and ninety were Cotswolds. During 



74: THE AMEEICAK MERIISJ-O 

January a record was kept ; the Merinos gained seven and one- 
quarter pounds each, at a cost of 8.4 cents ; the Cotswolds five 
and one-quarter each, at a cost of 11.6 cents per pound. These 
animals all received the same amount of feed per day, and it 
was all dry feed. 

The explanation is, that the English sheep are best adapted to 
the damp chmate, the juicy turnips and the shade-cured hay of 
England ; the Merino to the hot, dry climate, the oily corn and 
the sun-dried hay of America. 

No one disputes the remarkable precocity of the English 
breeds, A Hampshire-down lamb on its native grass near Salis- 
bury, has increased eight-tenths of a pound daily, for a good 
many days together ! But the breeding of early market lambs 
is an exceptional, extravagant and necessarily suicidal industry. 
Only one man in a thousand can afford to eat spring lamb ; the 
vast majority of mankind who eat mutton at all, must be con- 
tent with the mature flesh. And for nearly half the year in 
America, if not the whole year, mutton can not be made so 
profitable in the large way (body and fleece taken together), from 
the English breeds, as from the Merino. 

We want the English breeds near our cities to furnish spring 
Iambs, and long, coarse wool, and root-fed or grass-mutton, for 
export to England ; but the Merino will never cease to supply 
most Americans with their corn-and-hay-fed mutton. 

The assertion that first-rate chops and roast can not be cut 
from any but an English carcass, is old and womout ; and, 
moreover, wholly unwarranted. There is only one genuine 
mutton-sheep worth considering, and that is the Soutlidown, 
whose wool is comparatively fine. The coarser the fiber of the 
fleece, the coarser the grain of the mutton. The heavy, loose- 
wooled Cotswold and Shropshire produce mutton, as Lord 
SummerviUe says, ' ' fit for such markets as supply shipping and 
collieries " — ham-fat and thick on the rib. 

The mature American Merino, with its fine-grained flesh, 
when it has been properly fed and butchered, yields chop, boil 
or roast, second only to the Southdown, if, indeed, it is at all 
inferior. The superiority of the Southdown, if it has any, con- 
sists, not in the sweetness and tenderness of the flesh, but in the 
thickness of the hams and the " marbling," or the distribution 
of fat among the lean. 

The idea that the wool gives taste to the flesh, either by its 
growth before butchering, or by its touch in the butchering, or 
after, is a very old one, but it is erroneous. The flesh of the 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOH. 75 

sheep partakes of the flavor of its feed more than does that of the 
steer or the hog ; and the milk still more perhaps. But all the 
apparatus of glands and tissues, for the manufacture of wool, 
is situated in the skin, and all its deposits are made there, with- 
out affecting the flesh. 

The disagreeable "sheepy" flavor is imparted to meat by age, 
by bad feeding (or no feeding at all), by wrinkles, and by delay 
in the removal of the viscera. Let a plain sheep be properly 
managed from birth to butchering, and the entrails be taken out 
with neatness and dispatch, and the carcass may be wrapped in 
the skin without detriment, barring the uncleanliness. From 
the enormous preponderance of the breed, the much-decried 
"Merino taste" is the scapegoat for all the bad feeding and 
worse butchering of the country. A sheep may yield the best 
flesh of all the domesticated animals or fowls — or the worst, 

A cry comes up from the Territories and from Texas, that 
they must have a larger carcass, "more mutton and more wool 
on fewer legs." These men do not correctly perceive what is 
wrong with tbeir Merinos. It is not size they lack, so much as 
quality. The sheep of Texas "kill red," as the butchers say. 
Then they " cook red ; " they will not brown in the oven ; they 
are the despair of the French chef. The sheep that *' rustles " 
is muscular, he is gamy, though not necessarily '' sheepy." He 
is never fat enough for thoroughly good eating, even when feed- 
ing on the best Montana Bunch-grass or the famous Grama of 
Texas. And when he is forced to live awhile on the Black sage 
of Nevada, or the Nopal cactus of Texas, or the Broom-sedge of 
Georgia, what can we expect ? 

Then, too, in the Far "West, the value of sheep heretofore as a 
wool-producer, has oftentimes caused the flock-master to keep 
his wethers until they died of old age or abuse ; whence has 
arisen the delusive maxim of that section of the United States, 
" old sheep for mutton." But the tables given by Mr. Eandail, 
referred to in a previous chapter, show that Merinos, both ewes 
and wethers, whether for wool or mutton, or for a combination 
of the two, have passed their meridian of profitableness at the 
age of two years. In other words, young sheep produce not 
only the best mutton, but also the best and, proportionately, the 
most wool ; so that the producer of both articles can give his 
customers the quality they want as to age, and at the same time 
promote his own interests. And when to the requisites above 
noted is added the others, viz : that the animal shall be free 



76 TEE AMERICAN MERIKO 

from wrinkles, and be slaughtered under four years of age, we 
shall have Merino mutton of an unexceptionable quality. 

In the still, deep pastures of Ohio, or fed on corn, oats and 
bran, with bright fodder, hay and straw (add roots if you will), 
the flesh of the American Merino has juice and flavor. It will 
take on the color in the oven which is the delight of the gour- 
met ; and it will enrich with gravy the plump, brown potatoes 
which encircle its base, round about. Mutton is as much re- 
sponsive to culture as music, "What the flock-masters of the 
Territories need is, to round out the fattening of their muscular, 
gamy "muttons " with a few months', or at least weeks', feed- 
ing on hay and grain, in a field or corral. The leggy wethers of 
the plains would have to be broken to quiet gradually ; but a 
reasonable period of rest and feed will develop in their flesh 
that fat and juice, which the constant walking of their previous 
lives had dried up. 

A fat, smooth carcass, weighing eighty-five or ninety pounds, 
will sell only an inconsiderable fraction, if at all, lower than the 
one of one hundred and ten, one hundred and twenty or one 
hundred and thirty pounds' weight, in the Chicago Stock Yards. 
In England, and also in New York, with its English tastes and 
prepossessions, a difference of about a cent and a half per pound 
of live weight is made in favor of Southdown, over Merino ; 
sometimes even two cents. But in liberal, cosmopolitan, (or, 
rather American) Chicago, there would usually be a difference 
of only three-eighths to one-half cent a pound between pure 
one-hundred-pound Merino wethers and one-hundred-and- 
twenty-pound Southdowns. In a letter to me, Mr. A. C. 
Halliwell, of the Chicago i)rouers' Journal, says :<<****** 
In this market it may be well to state that the demand for light 
and heavy sheep varies ; largely owing to the season. When 
lambs and choice ' handy ' carcasses are scarce, it often happens 
that Merino grades sell higher than coarse- wools." 

The reader is referred to the report of sales in the Drovers' 
Journal, of Chicago, quoted in a previous chapter, showing how 
almost completely quality rules the market, instead of size. I 
will add at random a few comments made by the reporter of 
the above journal : 

" These Western sheep are among the best mutton sheep that 
now come to market. A few years ago, Oregon and Nebraska 
sheep were among the most objectionable that came. The rea- 
son was, they were large-framed, weighed about one hundred 
to one hundred and ten pounds, and were seldom more than 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOIS". *^7 

half fat ; now they have the same frames, but twenty to thirty 
pounds more of good, solid meat on their bones, put on with 
good western corn and hay. 

'' This market could use a -very large number of fat Texas 
sheep every day. In fact, there is very little danger of crowd- 
ing the market with fat sheep suitable for making mutton. 

" Ship fat sheep as fast as they can be gathered ; and do not 
ship lean, scrawny lots at all. 

"Buyers do not show any partiality ***** They 
look at the condition of the animal. If heavy, round and fat, 
they pay top figures, no matter what part of the country the 
sheep hail from, or what breed or mixture." 

Both the Merino fleece and skin are superior to those of the 
Southdown ; so, if both were sold in the wool, in Chicago, there 
would be practically no difference between them. 

But, if the butchers or the fashion should insist on having a 
carcass as large as the Southdown, the American Merino is cap- 
able of supplying it. A direct descendant of the famous ram 
Sweepstakes, in Fulton County, Ohio, weighed when in high 
condition, two hundred and five pounds. No ram is admitted 
to record in the " Victor-Beall Delaine Merino Register," weigh- 
ing under one hundred and fifty pounds, and no ewe under one 
hundred pounds. Mr. H. R. Pumphrey, of Licking County, 
Ohio, had at one time twenty-one full -blood American Merino 
yearling ewes, which weighed one thousand eight hundred and 
ninety-five pounds, or a trifle over ninety pounds apiece ; and 
twenty-four ewe lambs weighing one thousand six hundred and 
seventy-five pounds, or a little less than seventy pounds apiece. 
E. M. Morgan, of Champaign County, Ohio, reared thirty-eight 
lambs from thirty-five ewes, and at the opening of winter, these 
Iambs averaged seventy-six pounds. His yearling wethers, 
" including three dry ewes," averaged one hundred and twenty- 
two pounds. A lot of full-blood wethers, two years old, were 
sold in 1881, in Jefferson County, Ohio, which averaged one 
hundred and twenty-two and a half pounds with the wool ofi". 
The Merino wethers of Michigan and of Washington County, 
Pa. , often average one hundred and twenty to one hundred and 
twenty-five pounds with their fleeces off. 

Butchers and buyers seem to have a sort of prejudice in favor 
of a sheep that will reach the even hundred pounds ; and I do 
not think the breeder of pure-blood Merinos will find his high- 
est profic in aiming much above that figure. In a Shorthorn 
steer, we seek the greatest amount of beef in a single animal ; 



78 THE AMEEICAK MEEIKO 

but with the sheep, which yields as a collateral product that 
" staple of endless values and mysterious shrinkages," we must 
have surface to grow it on. 

In advising new beginners what sheep to buy, the Texas Live 
Stock Journal says ; " Purchase a flock which will turn out a 
good hundred-pound mutton. Then see that these sheep will 
shear at least above the average of four pounds of wool. With 
a flock shearing five, six or seven pounds of wool, with a flock 
turning out hundred-pound muttons at two years old, with 
sheep used to the country and the system in vogue, with a good 
range of mixed grass to run them on, any intelligent man can 
make a good hving profit on his investment at present prices 
for year's cfips of wool." 

No right-thinking breeder of American Merinos will ever seek 
to grow early mutton lambs. But a cross between the Merino 
and Southdown produces admirable results in this direction. 
The Merino-Southdown, from a unilateral cross, is probably the 
nearest appi'oacb that will ever be made to an animal yielding, 
at the same time, the best staple and the finest quality of 
mutton. 

It is as a producer of mature grain-fed mutton, and a choice 
delaine or combing staple, that the American Merino has before 
it a great future. 

It is probable that wool of equal value for the manufacture of 
worsteds, or other fabrics requiring a true and strong fiber, can 
be produced in no other way, as the conditions to which the 
sheep is subjected when being judiciously fed for mutton are 
especially favorable to the growth of a fiber of this character. 
Life upon the range, with its attendant exposure to extremes of 
weather and alternations of plentiful and scant feed, can never 
with certainty produce this class of wool. 

Hon. John L. Hayes, Secretary of the National Association of 
Wool Manufacturers, said to the Vermont breeders in 1884 : 

"The French early saw that combing could be applied to 
Merino wool ; and that gave rise to the French Merino— a large- 
bodied animal growing a long wool. The French invented var- 
ious fabrics, merino, etc. The English did not comb any wools, 
except those of long fiber. Up to 1865 we followed the English 
practice and our wool manufactures urged the growing of long 
wools. Then the processes in vogue in France were adopted here, 
and iu 1869 the first worsted coatings were made in this country. 
The wool used was Merino. In 187G there was an astonishing 
exhibit of worsted at Philadelphia. Since 1869 the manufacture 



I'OR WOOL A]^D MUTTOiT. 79 

of worsted has increased from $320,000 annually to $45,000,000, 
and this has come from your system of breeding, which has 
furnished the necessary material." 

The great demand for wool created by the fostering of the 
protective tariff, led to the development in the United States of 
the greatest wool-producer the world ever saw ; but it was a 
one-sided animal. It is a sheep whose anatomical formula may 
be comprehensively stated thus : Fifty pounds of carcass, fifty 
pounds of " drift," six pounds of wool, twenty pounds of yolk 
—a total of fifty-six pounds of wool and flesh, to seventy pounds 
of waste. Such an animal cannot stand the test of a many- 
sided civilization. From the production of wool there has set 




Fisr. 6. — A KAMBOUILLET MERINO. 

\n an extreme reaction to the production of mutton from 
English breeds. It would be wiser for us to do as the disciples 
of Daubenton did in France— create out of our own excellent 
material, the American Merino, an animal yielding a three-inch 
delaine staple, and sixty pounds of clear, ripe mutton. 

The French Merino was brought to this country under un~ 
fortunate auspices ; it came from a high culture to a raw, pio- 
neer civilization ; and this fact, together with the rapacity 
and swindlmg of its introducers, loaded it with obloquy. But 
with our American soil and climate, superadded to the laborious, 
and searching care which the French farmer is willing to give, 
something very like the French Merino would be the nearest 
approach to a perfect general-purpose sheep. 



80 THE AMEEICAK MERIi^O 

As a suggestion, and perhaps a desirable model for our Amer- 
ican Meriuo breeders to follow, I will give a brief outline of the 
Eambouillet Merino. When brought from Spain to France, in 
1786, tiie rams weighed in full fleece from one hundred and 
thirty to one hundred and forty-five pounds ; the ewes, ninety 
to one hundred and five ; the rams' fleeces, ten and three- 
quarter pounds ; the ewes', nine and one-tliird ; the staple of 
the rams' fleeces was 2. 18 inches long in the crimp ; that of the 
ewes', 2.14. At the date of the Paris Exposition, 1878, the rams 
weighed in full fleece, one hundred and ninety-five pounds ; the 
ewes, one hundred and forty ; the rams' fleeces, nineteen and 
three-quarter pounds ; the ewes', thirteen and one-half ; the 
staple of the rams' fleeces was 2.57 inches long in the crimp ; 
that of the ewes', 2.30. The staple was about of the same fineness 
as when they were brought from Spain, and the fleeces yielded 
about the same percentage of pure wool, that is thirty to thirty- 
three per cent. Their fleece weighed about ten per cent of their 
live weight, where our American fleeces reach twenty per cent. 

The fluctuations of fashion sometimes operate disastrously 
on the wool-grower. Since the year 1809, there have been three 
revolutions in woolen manufacture: alternations between the 
long-haired wool used in making the stiff, " full-luster," British 
fabrics, such as alpacas and brill antines, and the Merino wool 
used in the soft, fine, clinging stuffs, such as cashmeres and 
chillis. To say nothing of the heavy losses occasioned to wool- 
growers by these changes, I will mention the case of the Pacific 
Mills, of Lawrence, Mass. This great factory lost over $2,000,- 
000 as a result of a single one of these changes, that amount of 
capital being sunk in machinery, thus rendered worthless. 

But the superiority of American wools, especially those from 
the Eastern agricultural regions, in soundness, length and 
strength of staple, gives our manufacturers an advantage of 
great value. The clips of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Vir- 
ginia are acknowledged to be the best produced in Christendom, 
not wholly on account of a superior adaptation of soil and cli- 
mate, but also because the Merino has fallen into the hands of 
the best race of farmers of civilization. 

The wool product of the United States for 1884 is set down at 
about 837,000,000 pounds, against 320,000,000 for 1883. Our im- 
ports for 1884 were a fraction short of 73,000,000 pounds, against 
84,000,000 in 1883. Subtracting the amount sent over to Can- 
ada, we have about 68,000,000 pounds as our import for home 
manufacture. Only about 6,000 bales— 2,500,000 pounds— were 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 81 

imported from Australia, to be used in the finest cloths of our 
manufacture ; the greater part of the remainder imported was 
carpet wool. Now, it is estimated that about ninety-fivo per 
cent of all the sheep of the United States are Merinos, or Merino 
grades. So then we find that five per cent of our home-grown 
wool and perhaps ten per cent of the imported — certainly not 
over seven per cent of the whole amount of wool used in our 
manufacture — is from the English breeds. And the tendency 
is toward a reduction of even this trifling percentage. 

The faint-hearted flock-master who may be disposed, in a 
temporary depression of *v-alues, to Bacrifice our National race, 
the American Merino, for a coarser breed or a mongrel make- 
shift, ought to bear in mind that the Merino furnishes, and in 
the long run will continue to furnish, ninety per cent or more 
of the wool required for the clothing of the American people ! 
All the British wool that will ever be grown in the United 
States would sew but a brilliant patch of color upon the Merino 
fabric of this Nation. In the markets of a cultivated people the 
coarse, showy cloths manufactured from British wools can not 
permanently or long compete with the dainty, soft, fur-like 
flannels which the Merino yields. 

Hon. John L. Hayes, speaking to the wool-growers at Plnl- 
adelphia, said : " By making your sheep fat in the shortest pos- 
sible time, which you can do best with the English races, and 
killing them as soon as they are mature, you make the best and 
soundest wool. It will not only be young, but healthy ; it wfll 
have no tender places in it. Aiming for the best mutton, you 
will be certain to get the best wool, which will always sell, no 
matter what race it belongs to." 

There is some confusion of logic here, and a statement only 
true in a general way ; but the converse proposition is equally 
true ; that the farmer who produces the best wool (a three-inch, 
fine delaine staple, true and sound, and uniformly distributed 
over the surface of a rather plain sheep), will develop also the 
best mutton. 

The watch-cry comes fitfully over from Great Britain to the 
American flock-master, that he must make wool the collateral 
product. It is a mischievous maxim. With the overworked 
and underfed millions of an old civilization, "what ye shall 
eat " is of prime consequence ; but in this new empire of ours, 
still in the pride and strength of youth, the people have money 
to buy the wherewithal they may be clothed. 

The spring lamb which feeds the gentleman, clothes the hod- 



82 THE AMERICAN MERINO 

carrier in Kersey or jeans, and we can not develop it to any- 
thing better ; but the gentleman, after he has obtained his 
broadcloth from the Merino, would relegate the carcass to the 
hod-carrier. In other words, the British sheep caters to the 
two extremes of a dense population, wealth and abject poverty ; 
but the Merino ministers to that independent class which is the 
boast of our country. 

Our factories are rapidly acquiring the secrets of peculiar and 
popular foreign styles and fabrics, and even improving upon 
them, and inventing new processes and textures. Fancy cas- 
simeres were, until recent times, of foreign production. Now 
the world-famous establishments of Sedan and Elboeuf are 
equaled or distanced. A bit of M. Boujeon's goods, taken from 
the inside of the collar of an overcoat worn by a gentleman from 
Paris, was the inspiration of the Crampton loom on which 
fancy cassimeres are now woven, not only in the United States, 
but also in several countries of Europe. These goods were at 
the Centennial Exhibition, and the Swedish judge, Mr. Carl 
Amberg, a practical manufacturer, in his admiration, said to 
Hon. John L. Hayes : * ' You know that the best fancy cassi- 
meres in the world have been made at Sedan and Elboeuf, in 
France. If these goods were placed by the side of the Elboeuf 
cassimeres, you could not tell one from the other ; and the goods 
could not be bought at Elboeuf for the prices marked here." 
These goods were made from American Merino wool. 

The worsted coatings, differing from the fancy cassimeres in 
being made from combed, instead of carded wool, are a recent 
triumph of our manufacturing skill ; they obtained distinction 
at the Paris Exposition of 1867. As an incidental result of this, 
another industry has been created, the combing and spinning 
of worsted yarns. Of these an exhibition was made at Phila- 
delphia, by companies representing $1,500,000 of annual pro- 
duction ; and they obtained an award showing them to be 
superior to yarns from the best Australian wools, being *' kinder, 
more elastic and stronger." 

In flannels, America has already surpassed Europe, because 
the goods are as well made and of better material. For a quarter 
of a century, European flannels have been driven from our mar- 
kets, and we now export them to Canada. The yarns from these 
flannels are more closely twisted, the fabric shrinks less, and it 
is more highly finished and smoother in face. Even opera flan- 
nels are now made here from American Merino wool, which are 



FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTON". 83 

softer than those manufactured from AustraHan fleece. Com- 
mendable progress has been made in competition with France, 
in the finer styles of ladies' dress goods, such as delaines, serges 
and merinos. 

I addressed a number of questions to a prominent manufact- 
urer and expert of Conshohocken, Pa., to which he replied under 
date of May 6, 1883 : 

*< * * * rpj^g Australian wool is finer in blood than our 
American Merino wool, but it is not as strong, and for all pur- 
poses I would prefer our high-blood American Merino wool, 
making a stronger thread ; and for nearly all goods made, would 
give the American Merino the preference to Australian at same 
price. If we could get the farmers to be more careful in putting 
up their wool, free from trash and other refuse stuil, [it] would 
bring a better price. We can now purchase Australian wool at 
Beventy-five cents for the scoured pound, which to the American 
manufacturer comes much cheaper than the American Merino 
wool, being free from heavy string, and containing no trash 
whatever. My own experience is, that Australian wool is much 
finer, and varies in staple and soundness ; and I would prefer for 
our use the choice, fine, high-blooded Ohio Merino to the Aus- 
tralian, on account of its strength, and making a much stronger 
yarn." 

Granting always that there are sometimes conditions of soil, 
climate and market, in which the British breeds would be more 
profitable, as a specialty, than the Merino, let us consider the 
latter as one of the by-products of the farm. For, in all the 
region east of the Mississippi, it is chiefly as a factor in diversi- 
fied farming that the American Merino will fill the measure of 
its great possibilities. As an element of average mixed farming, 
a few choice high-grade or pure-blood Merinos could be kept at 
a profit on land worth two hundred dollars an acre, whereas, if 
kept to the exclusion of other farm-products, they might be un- 
profitable on land worth over twenty-five dollars an acre. 

Rejecting all conjectural statistics, I will give some w^ell- 
attested, actual experience. I condense the following from the 
American SheejD-Breeder : 

"Mr. T. W. W. Sunman, of Spades, Indiana, Nov. 1, 1878, 
weighed six Merino ewes, aggregating five hundred and ten 
pounds, or eighty-fiTve pounds each, and put them by themselves 
in a yard containing a good sheep-house, where they were strictly 
confined during the winter. They received timothy and clover 



84 THE AMERICAN MEEIKO 

hay, mixed, and cut three-quarter-incli long ; of this they had 
all they would eat, weighed out every day. They never ex- 
ceeded eleven pounds a day, a trifle under two pounds apiece. In 
addition they received a quart apiece of ground feed, consisting 
of one-quarter oats, one-quarter corn, and one-half wheat-bran. 
They were kept on dry feed from Nov. 1 to March 15, and from 
that to May 1, on green rye. As the rye which they grazed, 
when cut and threshed, yielded as much grain as that part on 
which no sheep were kept, they were charged nothing for this 
six weeks' grazing. From May until late in October, the six ewes 
and their five lambs, grazed on a single acre of well-set pasture, 
containing good shade and water, for which they were charged 
forty cents apiece for the season. 

DEBIT. 

Six ewes @ $10 $60.00 

Three-quarter-ton Lay 7.50 

Seven hundred and twenty pounds ground feed 7.20 

Six months' pasture 2.40 

Salt 25 

Total $77.35 

CREDIT. 

Six ewes @ $9.00. $54.00 

Eighty-four pounds v-'ool @ 28 cents 23.53 

Five lambs @ $2.50 1:3.50 

Total $90.02 

Profit $12.67 

Another case I will cite out of my own experience. In 1882, 
I purchased eleven pure-blood ewes for two hundred dollars. 
The first winter they slept in a partitioned corner of the sheep- 
house, in which they were confined at night ; while by day, 
except in stormy weather, they ranged in a corn-stubble, from 
which tliey picked up the greater part of their living. They 
received one car of curn per head per day. One hundred average 
ears yield a bushel of shelled corn. Thus they consumed, in five 
months, fifteen bushels of corn. In addition to the corn, they 
received during the winter, one-half ton of hay, mostly timothy. 
During the summer they pastured in an extremely rough piece of 
land, part orchard, pr^rt locust grove. The apples from the 
orchard paid for the use of the ground. The second winter was 
more severe: and they co:.c".mcd, with the same amount of corn, 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 85 

twenty-two hundred pounds of hay. We have, then, the foUow- 
l?.g account (one ewe having died) : 

DEBIT. 

Eleven ewes $200.00 

Twerty-S(! ven hundred pounds liay 13.50 

Thirty bushels corn 12.00 

Salt 50 

Total S2J0.00 

CREDIT. 

Ten ewes $140.00 

Twenty lambs 50.00 

One hundred and eleven lbs. wool @ 20 cents 2i.20 

Two hundred and live lbs. wool @ 23 cents . .' 45.10 

Total $257.30 

Profit $ 31.30 

It will be seen that I have given the results with the utmost 
fairness. A small profit was made even on sheep bought at the 
"stud-flock" price of twenty dollars apiece, though their lambs 
and, of course, the wool are credited at only ordinary wool-flock 
prices. Plenty of high-grades could have been purchased at 
eight dollars a head, which would have given equally good 
fleeces and lambs, worth as much as the above, in the estimate. 
At eight dollars a head the profit for the two years would have 
been forty-one dollars and thirty cents ; for one year, twenty 
dollars and sixty-five cents ; or about two dollars and fifiy cents 
ahead. This is a clear profit more than double the "average 
annual revenue " from the English sheep in his own country. 



CHAPTER IX. 

LAMBING. 

UsH OF THE Sheep-Hook. — Probably not one flock-master in 
a hundred uses that invaluable labor-saving implement, the shep- 
herd's-crook, or sheep-hook. It is surprising that practical, 
shrewd, inventive Americans will take upon themselves year 
after year heavy and unnecess:\ry labor, when the sluggish, 
Oriental shepherd contrived a way to escape it in the earlier 
stages of 11 is art, by the employment of the crook. Every ex- 
perienced flock-master knows that unless a bunch of sheep arc 



86 THE AMEEICAIs^ MEEIXO 

closely huddled, or quite tame, it is very laborious work to catch 
them, one by one, by the hind legs— for it is an outrage to catch 
them by the fleece, which the master should never tolerate. And 
if it is very tedious and tiresome to catch a hundred or more 
strong sheep when they are crowded together ; how much more 
so is it to single out and chase down one after another in a roomy 
yard, where the master wants them well scattered, so that he 
can readily detect any points or marks he is looking for. He 
wants them to run by him, or to go circling around him, always 
keeping them with the painted side toward him, so that he can 
catch the mark readily. 

Then again, when a foolish young ewe is standing guard in 
the field over her first lamb, she faces the intruder constantly 
and backs slowly away, stamping and snufiing, the lamb follow- 
ing her up ; until finally in despair the master makes a sudden 
spring, and his fingers probably just graze the wool. 

With a sheep-hook in his hand, his task is greatly lessened and 
simplified. If the ewe is to be caught in the sheep-house, it is 
barbarous to create an uproar and set all the other ewes and 
lambs to running about, trampling down the weakest, in a mad 
chase after a recusant ewe. Instead of that, let him quietly 
reach out the hook around the corner or between the slats of a 
hay-rack, and seize her by the leg— either a fore or hind-leg— 
preferably the latter, and no disturbance is created. I have sel- 
dom failed to capture the wildest ewe in a twenty-acre field, 
with the hook, at the first pass. There is no bending of the 
back ; no foundation laid for rheumatism in after years. 

Deftness with the hook, of course, can be acquired only by 
practice. It is best to let the sheep which is to be caught get 
somewhat disentangled from the others, then thrust out the 
hook and clap it on the leg just above the hock-joint, where the 
sheep can not readily kick it off. Draw it carefully back, and at 
the same time lift upward to keep the hook in its place. 

When the sheep is within reach, seize it by the hind-leg, or 
throw an arm around in front of the brisket. The gentleness 
and even tenderness with which the fancy breeder lays hold of 
his show-sheep in the pen, sets it on its rump for inspection, 
then assists it to its feet without allowing it to struggle, and 
caref ally brushes the dirt off the fieece and straightens out the 
disordered locks, may seem to some bordering on the senti- 
mental ; but it puts "to shame the barbarous roughness of the 
novice. If a sheep is to be lifted and laid on its side or carried, 
it may be taken up with the left arm under the neck, and the 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 87 

right arm grasping the right flank (not by the wool) ; or with 
both hands joined under the brisket, the animal being held 
perpendicularly, or with the left arm around the brisket and 
the right between the hind-legs. 

Making A Hook —Any blacksmith of ordinary "rumble- 
gumption " can make one. Take a five-sixteenth-inch rod of 
spring steel, weld it to the socket of an old hoe-handle, for the 
insertion of the handle ; bend it into a hook, as figure.d here- 




Fig. 7.— crook:. 

with, about four inches long, an inch wide on the inside at the 
bulge, seven-eighths of an inch wide at the neck (to spring open 
and close again on the leg) : flatten it at the point, and turn it 
out one-half inch or so, and back with a roll or a knob to pre- 
vent laceration. Insert a w ooden handle six or seven feet long. 

Fixtures and Preparations.— One of the most necessary 
fixtures about the sheep-house in lambing-time, is a set of 
portable panels for the construction of pens for milkless ewes. 
These panels should be about four feet high, by three feet long ; 
they may be made of light lath, with spaces narrow enough to 
prevent the passage of lambs ; or, better still, closed up entirely 
near the bottom, to prevent the lamb from seeing and smelling 
ewes outside of the pen. These panels can be tied together at 
the corners with twine to form enclosures. They are better 
than permanent boxes or pens, as they are not needed except m 
lambing time, and are more easily laid away than boxes. 

It is taken for granted that the ewes occupy a stable, more or 
less, during this critical season ; the size and arrangement of 
this will be considered elsewhere. All crannies and crevices 
ought to be stopped before lambs begin to arrive ; a very young 
lamb, attracted by the light, perhaps, or moved by that instinct 
which teaches it to seek refuge and warmth, is very apt to 
wedge itself into a narrow place and get chilled. If the build- 
ing has stone foundations — which are objectionable for this rea- 
son — they ought to be covered deep with litter ; a lamb, while 
still damp, is almost certain to lie down on the stone and 
become fatally chilled. 



88 THE AMERICAIS^ MERI>q"0 

General Management. — When a rain is coming on, look out 
for a shower of lambs ; a falling barometer generally portends 
an increased activity in the sheep-stable, and indicates the 
necessity of greater watchfulness. The first thing in the morn- 
ing, of course, the shepherd will go through the stable and look 
carefully for newly dropped lambs. As soon as convenient, the 
doors ought to be opened and the flock allowed to drift leisurely 
out into a yard (not to receive feed, as then they will rush out 
too rapidly), to allow the ewes with lambs dropped during the 
night, to become separated from the others. If any irregularity 
appears, if any ewes have abandoned their young, careful 
search must be made through the flock for those which give 
indications of having been recently parturient. There may be 
twins ; they may be separated ; one may have been adopted by 
a strange ewe, herself on the point of yeaning, and she may 
now be paying attention both to the stranger and her own 
lamb ; or she may (such is the extraordinary stupidity of which 
young Merino ewes are capable), even have neglected her own 
lamb in her devotion to the one previously adopted. 

When a ewe is seen to remain apart and take no notice of 
the flock for two or three hours, she ought to be gently caught 
and examined. Young Merino ewes are apt to be troubled by 
a retention of the foetus, which may be due to several causes : 
Scirrhous os uteri, firm adherence and abnormal conditions of 
placenta and uterus, loss of power of expulsion by the uterus, 
paralysis, deformities, torsion of the uterus, and others. The 
first of these causes is most likely to be present, and it may in- 
duce a labor so protracted as to make the ewe disown her lamb. 
Let the operator, having laid the ewe carefully on the left 
side, sit at her back, and with the forefinger of the right hand, 
feel for the foetus per vaginam. He should rest satisfied with 
nothing short of the fore-feet, or head, or both. If this can not 
be had, tlie mouth of the womb is evidently closed, but a patient 
search will seldom fail to reveal a very small and tightly corded 
orifice. If this can not be discovered, one must be fretted away 
with the finger-nail, or with the point of a knife-blade closely 
pressed against the finger. After this has been gradually en- 
larged so as to admit one finger, a second finger may be inserted, 
then a third. 

Delivery can be successfully accomplished in three cases : 
First, when there is a presentation of the hind-feet ; second, of 
the head and fore-feet ; third, of the head witti one or both of 
the fore-legs doubled back, though in this case the labor Ib 



FOR WOOL AN'D MUTTON". 89 

difficult. All other presentations must be corrected ; some -per- 
Bon with a small hand should thrust the foetus back and en- 
deavor to turn it in such a manner, as to bring on one of the 
above presentations, preferably that of the head and two fore- 
feet. Such interference as this is risky, still it is always best to 
resort to it promptly, as soon as it is ascertained that there is a 
false presentation, for protracted labor is apt to result in the 
strangulation of the lamb and the eversion of the uterus. More 
than that, it frequently disheartens the ewe, and makes her in- 
different to the lamb. From the time the head distinctly emerges 
from the mouth of the womb, the labor-pains may be so assisted 
by the operator as to complete the delivery in twenty minutes. 

With the fore-finger hooked in the under side of the jaw, and 
the remainder of the hand grasping the fore-legs, the operator 
may draw gently, in unison with the pains, gradually increas- 
ing the draught. If the pulling is distributed equally between 
the legs and the jaw, it may reach twenty or twenty-five pounds 
without injury to either ewe or lamb. It is far better to employ 
whatever force may be necessary, even to the fracture of the 
lower jaw (this may occur, and yet the lamb survive and re- 
cover), than to allow the ewe to linger for hours in agony, in a 
hopeless effort to expel the foetus from a womb which has 
an insufficient exit, or none at aU. 

After the lamb has drawn a few breaths, the umbilical cord 
may be severed a foot or • more from the lamb, which should 
then be laid under the ewe's nose. If she falls to licking it, all 
well ; but if the parturition has been too painful, she may take 
no notice of the lamb. But if confined with it in a very small 
ptn, where she can see no other sheep, she will generally own it 
in a few hours. 

Foster Mothers, Substitution, Etc. — ^When a good milker 
loses her lamb, her services are not necessarily lost ; there are 
various ways of rendering her useful in the flock. If she is 
extremely attached to her lamb, and lingers about its dead body, 
she may be made to adopt a stranger by clothing it in the skin 
of her own, but this ruse Avill not deceive a sharp ewe. Let the 
skin be taken off without the head, but with the fore-legs to 
serve as sleeves, and with the tail, for it is at the root of the tail 
that the mother always seeks the scent by which she recognizes 
her offspring. The skin should be removed within twenty-four 
hours, else it will putrefy and sicken the lamb. 

A ewe may be induced to adopt almost anything if, immedi- 
ately after parturition, her own lamb is taken away before she 



90 THE AMERICAN MERIKO 

smells it, and another, after being rubbed in her liquor amnii, 
is laid under her nose. A little salt rubbed about the rump may- 
persuade her to fall to licking it, and thus develop a fondness 
for it. But all these substitutions are extremely hazardous; 
the master may have to keep the foster-mother alone with the 
lamb, and contend with her for weeks, whipping, scaring her 
with the shepherd dog, etc., to accomplish the desired result. 
If a ewe owns her lamb at all, and has milk, however little, 
with a prospect of giving more, it is far better to leave the lamb 
with her and supplement her supply with the bottle. A lamb 
once taken away from the mother is a source of infinite "pot- 
tering." 

"Resuscitation of Chilled Lambs.— It is surprising to the 
novice, how near death a lamb may pass and yet be brought 
back by the help of man. If the thumb and fingers tightly 
clasped on each side of the chest, discover the faintest throbbing 
of the heart, it is worth while to attempt to restore it, if the 
lamb is a good one. (Even in a well-bred flock there are some- 
times lambs so puny and flaccid — generally covered with min- 
ute pellets of wool, tightly curled down, plainly revealing the 
skin and prophesying a poor shearer— tliat they are not worth 
much exertion). The quickest way, and in extreme cases, the 
only way to recover it is, to plunge it up to the neck into water 
as hot as the hand can bear. But this should be only a last 
resort, for there is great danger that the water will obliterate 
the scent at the root of the tail by which the dam recognizes 
her own. For the same reason, it is dangerous to carry the 
lamb away at all, especially if wrapped in malodorous carpets, 
or the like. It is better to bring out hot flannels and wrap up 
the lamb, leaving the head out for the mother to smell occasion- 
ally. A very good way, when the case is not desperate, is to 
fold the legs neatly, and hold the lamb between the ewe's hind- 
legs until it is warmed enough to suck. A lamb once severely 
chilled must be closely watched for several days afterward ; it 
is liable to a relapse unless highly nourished. 

If dropped in cold weather, a great many lambs would never 
succeed in getting the teat, unless assisted. It is an extremely 
vexatious task for one person to attempt to hold a struggling 
ewe on her feet, and teach a very young lamb to draw. It is 
best always to cut the matter short by laying her on her left 
side, the lamb on its right. Then with the thumb and finger of 
the left hand, hold the jaws apart and milk a little into the 
mouth. The taste of the warm milk will generally induce it to 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 91 

draw, as soon as the teat is introduced into its mouth. How- 
ever bright the lamb may appear, it is never safe to take any- 
thing whatever for granted as to the establishment of working 
relations between ewe and lamb, unless the latter is actually 
seen to suck. 

Cossets. — It is only a very valuable lamb that will repay the 
master for bringing it up by hand himself, and the hired help 
or the children will generally feed it so injudiciously through 
the summer, as to render it nearly worthless. I make it a rule 
of my flock, whether a lamb is to be reared by hand or not, that 
it shall not receive anything whatever but fresh ewe's milk into 
its stomach for the first day ; and the longer cow's milk can be 
withheld, the better. If no fresh ewe has a supply to spare, I 
make no scruple to draw on one that soon wiU be fresh. Cow's 
milk is too constipating, especially if not fresh. Constipation 
is at best the greatest banc of the young lamb's life, and it is 
well to allow the cosset, once a day, for a week or two, to have 
its fill of the freshest ewe's milk obtainable. If a young lamb 
is fed a few times with a teaspoon, it may be taught to suck a 
leather in the bottom of the trough, and thus much trouble be 
avoided ; but some are obstinate and must have the bottle. 
Sucking is better than drinking ; it is slower, and causes a 
freer secretion of saliva. 

. A Good Practical System.— Mr. Geo. S. Corp, of Morgan 
County, Ohio, in the fall removes the first sixty ewes served, 
keeping them separate. Eight or ten in every flock of sixty 
will " miss " at the first service. In two weeks after the service 
begins, he puts ' ' teasers " into the flock every day, as he brings 
them in, to discover those that require a second service ; and 
these are drafted into the second division of sixty. So with the 
second division, and the third, etc, Thus, when the season is 
ended, he has the divisions composed of about fifty each, which 
is the largest number he wishes to have in one flock. 

When lambing comes on, one division at a time requires 
attention ; the first and the last dates of service are recorded, so 
it is known when each division is done with. Bulletin boards 
hung on the wall have slips of paper pasted or tacked on them 
for " lamb records," showing date of birth, sire and dam of 
each. This lamb record is to be returned to the Secretary of the 
Ohio Eegister, of which Mr. C. is a member. 

Not satisfied with providing lamb pens for ewes that disown 
their lambs, he has enough to hold every lamb that will be 



93 THE A.MEKICAK MERIIfO 

dropped in two days or more. They are thirty-three in num- 
ber, in two barns, ranged along the two opposite sides, about 
four feet square, made of plasterer's lath, each with a little 
hinged door, hay rack and feed box. The building, which may 
be called the nursery, has a row of these on two sides of it, the 
row on the warmest side of the house having a stove about the 
middle of it. This stove is fenced about with lath. There are 
cages of different sizes, some only half as large as a mocking- 
bird's cage. These are furnished with handles and may be set 
on top of the pens or anywhere else near the stove. Lambs shut 
in them will be dried and warmed, and they can not wander 
off, as they have a propensity to do if not restrained, as soon as 
they begin to get warm and limber. 

Now this row of lamb pens on one side of the house (they are 
permanent) might be labeled milk ; that on the other side, NO 
MILK, though this is not actually done. When a lamb is stout 
and the ewe has milk, both are put at once into one of the pens 
on the " milk" side ; when the ewe has no milk or the lamb is 
weak and needs help, both are put at once into a pen on the 
' ' no milk " side. This saves the shepherd considerable trouble. 
When he comes into the stable with a bottle of warm cow's 
milk he does not have to pudder about, catching this ewe and 
that to see whether she has a supply of milk ; he simply takes 
the row as it comes. Sometimes the ewe's milk will "come" 
in six hours, sometimes in twelve, sometimes in thirty-six ; in 
a very rare case it never comes. In the interval of waiting, the 
lamb and the ewe require gentle and patient care and liberal 
feeding. As fast as lambs gain strength enough to go alone, 
they and their dams are removed to a separate flock until the 
limit of fifty is reached, when still another flock is started, etc. 

The bran boxes in the pens are about six inches square and an 
inch deep — a lath forms the sides — and are tacked on the top of 
the sill. The hay racks are also made of plasterer's lath, against 
the wall, having a depth a little greater than the width of the 
siU. 

After trying the patent rubber nipples of drug stores, Mr. C. 
threw them aside and made a little plug of soft poplar, with a 
bore about the size of a small wheat straw. At first he attached 
a cloth to this, but he presently found that the lamb would suck 
it as well without the cloth. He now uses this altogether. 

He has two or three "lamb creeps" in different parts of the 
building. One of these is formed by a board i)laced high enough 
to allow a lamb to pass under, but too low for a sheep. Another 



FOB WOOL AND MUTTOm 93 

has its entrance through a little hinged doer, which is propped 
open wide enough to admit a lamb, but it will catch a sheep by 
the shoulder. In these joens he has little troughs containing 
bran or ground feed for the special benefit of the lambs. 

Whether lambs are dropped in February or Ai)ril, whethe** 
they are grown for wool or mutton, it is of immense importance 
to keep them growing rapidly. They will, in ten days, take 
more than their mother's milk, and the little feed bestowed in this 
way will prove to be the best investment the flock-master can 
make. They can be weaned a month or six weeks sooner, if 
fed this way, and still be as large as usual, if not larger. This 
gives the ewes more time to rest and recuperate, and the added 
growth and strength of the lambs are a wonderful protection 
against parasitic diseases. 

Feeding with Cow's Milk.— It is sometimes desirable, where 
young lambs are fed with cow's milk to keep milk warm for 
some length of time. This can be easily accomplished by hav- 
ing a double tin can made, leaving a si^ace of an inch between 
the outer and inner walls which can be filled with sand. The 
top and bottom should be soldered securely to both walls after 
putting in the sand. A tube an inch long must be placed on 
top and open into the inner cavity where the milk is put. Once 
warm the sand, and it will keep the milk warm for some hours. 

Lambs fed on cow's milk, like those whose mothers receive 
only corn and hay, are very prone to constipation, which is the 
greatest pest the shepherd has to contend with. 

1. Never feed with cow's milk, if possible to avoid it. If 
used, let it be fresh, diluted one-third its bulk with water, and 
weU sweetened with pure, white sugar. 

2. If fed every hour or two, after the first three or four feeds, 
it is not easy to give a lamb too much. Lambs are oftener 
starved to death than over-fed. 

3. If constipation has already set in, do not dose the lamb 
with black molasses, magnesia, lard or the like. Give it an in- 
jection with a bulb-syringe, very gently, with blood-warm 
water, first oiling the tube with castor-oil. If necessary, repeat 
the operation. 

But all the nostrums, laxatives, injection-pipes, and what 
not, fall immeasurably behind grass-made milk in value as pre- 
ventives of constipation. 

Diseases of Lambs. — This remark as to grass leads to a men- 
tion of the so-called '' lamb cholera " — a clear misnomer, since 
the malady has been distinctly shown to be non-epizootic. It 



94 THE AMERICAN MEEIKO 

generally attacks the finest, fattest lambs of the flock ; indeed, 
almost the only strictly safe generalization which may be made 
on its causes is, that it does not assail an under-fed flock, or a 
flock ranging on the sweet grasses, and the clear, running 
waters of a hilly country. For this reason. Southern Ohio has 
been almost exempt from its ravages, and I am chiefly indebted 
for information to observers livmg on the flatter, sourer lands 
of Northern Ohio, among whom I may mention Capt. J. G. 
Blue, of Morrow County ; Mr. William Cattell, of Columbiana 
County ; and Mr. G-. W. Hervey, of Jefferson County. 

The lamb is taken very suddenly and violently ; falls on the 
ground in a tremor, with spasmodic kicks ; sometimes froths at 
the mouth and throws the head back, further and further every 
minute, until finally it almost rests on the shoulders ; the eyes 
are rolled up and have a fixed, staring look. Death usually 
ensues in a few minutes, and dissection reveals " the first stom- 
ach full of cakes of curd ; the lungs seemed full of blood, and 
just inside the rectum was a slimy, watery appearanee, with 
considerable wind. No diarrhea apparent in those ; but I 
noticed in some a discharge hke diarrhea, after they were sick, 
but before they died." I never lost but one lamb from this 
disease, a hand-fed pet ; it had the above symptoms, and its 
stomach was very acid and tightly distended with gas. 

As with all ailments to which the sheep is hable, prevention 
is a hundred per cent better than cure ; but in this case the 
preventive measures must be brought to bear upon the ewes. 
One excellent, practical shepherd recommends to take a half- 
gallon of tar, mix into it all the salt it will hold together, and 
smear the salt-troughs with it, withholding all other salt, so 
as to compel the flock to lick this. The lambs will soon learn 
to partake with their dams. Another recommends grain and 
dry feed to correct the flatulency and acidity of the stomach. 
Better than either, perhaps, is sharp wood ashes, or lime, well 
mixed in the salt, say in the proportion of one part lime to ten 
of salt. 

If the lamb is seen as soon as attacked, and the shepherd is 
skilled in drenching, so that he can perform the operation with- 
out strangling the animal^f which there is great danger, 
especially when it is unable to swallow readily — let him admin- 
ister an ounce of Epsom salts in a teacup full of warm water ; it 
may save its life. Or, put a lump of tar, as large as a hickory 
nut, well back on the base of the tongue, and shut the mouth 
and hold it closed to compel it to swallow. 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOX. 95 

Excess of Milk.— When the ewes are on a full feed of grass, 
it frequently happens that a good milker will accumulate a 
supply of milk so large, as to cause one or both of the teats to 
become swollen and tender. If the lamb is vigorous and per- 
sistent, it will generally reduce one teat to use, but there is 
great danger that it will rest content with that one, and neglect 
the other, which will then speedily become useless. The milk 
must be drawn gently, and the ewe confined on dry feed three 
or four days. Care must be taken not to let her out too soon, 
or the operation will need to be repeated. 

Fouling. — The tail of a very young lamb sometimes becomes 
so firmly glued to the posteriors by the gummy excrement, that 
further defecation is rendered impossible. The best thing to do 
is, to remove the obstruction and dock the lamb at once ; but if, 
on account of warm weather, or for other reasons, it is not 
deemed expedient to do this at the time, all the parts should be 
scraped clean with a cob and well sprinkled with road-dust, or 
something similar. 



CHAPTER X. 
CARE OF EWES AND LAMBS. 

There is nothing within the compass of the art of man which 
will promote a flow of milk so well as grass ; and there is noth- 
ing else which wiU set a lamb up on its legs as well as a supply 
of grass-made milk. In the pastoral states, grass must neces- 
sarily be the main dependence of the shepherd ; but in the older 
East, the pressure of other branches of spring work on the 
average farmer (for it is chiefly as a component of diversified 
farming that the Merino has an assured future in the agricul- 
tural States), will probably always cause a majority of northern 
flock-masters to have lambing over and out of the way before 
much grass grows. 

Feed for Ewes. — When a Merino ewe lambs as early as 
February or March, it is a long time and a hard task for her to 
make milk on dry feed until grass comes. What little she may 



96 THE AMERICAiT MERIKO 

make will be constipating ; there is great danger that the lamb 
will die of costiveuess, after ten days or two weeks. A guide 
as to condition of the suckling ewe, is the softness of the fgeces ; 
they should not be in pellets. 

One of the best shepherds of my acquaintance, Mr. William 
F. Quinn, of Washington County, Ohio, feeds his ewes regu- 
larly, mangels, cut and sprinkled with bran. He has tried 
pulping, but prefers to cut them by hand into longish pieces, as 
large as one's finger. Pieces of this shape are not liable to cause 
choking. He finds that his ewes take more satisfaction in 
chewing these pieces than in gulping down like pigs a quan- 
tity of cold, watery mash, and are more benefited by them, on 
account of the more perfect admixture with saliva. 

Clover hay, bran, bruised oats, bright corn -fodder, fodder- 
corn (if cured without must), linseed meal, cotton-seed meal 
are all excellent. If the ration is increased gradually, there is 
hardly any danger of over-feeding with any of them, except tlie 
linseed and the cotton-seed meal. There are cases so well authen- 
ticated, in which linseed meal has produced abortion, that we 
are not at liberty to disregard them. Still, I never saw a case of 
injury resulting from its use. One of the best practical shep- 
herds of my acquaintance, Mr. L. W. Skipton, employs it habit- 
ually. To accustom his ewes to it, he at first mixes it in very 
small proportions with wheat bran, which he generally wets into 
a stiff slop ; at the outside, he never allows more than a gill of 
the linseed meal to each sheep. Probably most flock-masters 
would find less trouble in teaching their sheep to eat it dry, 
mixed with bran. 

But all these dry feeds, however excellent, do not equal roots 
in supplying the place of grass. And of these, probably, there 
is nothing superior to the white sugar beet for producing a flow 
of milk. I would name, in the order of their general availability, 
the white sugar beet, the mangel, the ruta-baga, and the white 
turnip. If no other succulent feed is at hand, small potatoes 
and apples can be given with great advantage. 

If the flock is small, it will be better to wash and slice the 
roots, or pulp them in a mill for the whole flock. If it is large, 
there will be a majority of them robust, and hearty enough to 
eat the roots whole, if scattered on the hay orts, in the racks 
where they will be clean. The dainty ones can be culled out in 
the course of a few feedings and placed in a separate flock ; this 
will reduce the labor of pulping. 

An excess of cold, watery feed is injurious to pregnant ewes. 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOI^". 97 

as it is likely to produce abortion. After parturition has taken 
place, there is little or no danger. 

Keeping the Stable Clean.— From the succulent feed, on 
which alone the shepherd can hope for a modicum of success 
wit'ji the breeding flock, there will be an immense increase of 
the exhalations which are so fatal to the health of sheep. The 
urine decomposes and gives off ammonia. There is nothing so 
abominable as a slippery, reeking stable-floor, from which the 
lambs, slipping between the slats into the hay-racks, carry tilth 
upon the hay ; they also discolor the ewes' fleeces by gamboling 
upon them when lying down, and they so besmear each other 
that they are almost unrecognizable by their own mothers ! Nor 
will it answer merely to heap up litter, in the hope of smother- 
ing the stench. The manure must be removed, clear down to 
the floor — which should be of earth — every week, or oftener, if 
the stench can not be suppressed ; and the surface sprinkled 
with lime, if the offensive odor is very persistent. On dry feed, 
the steady dribble of orts from the hay -racks, with a little ad- 
dition of straw or chaff, will absorb all the urine and prevent 
the escape of ammonia nearly all winter ; but on succulent feed 
this will not answer. The manure must be removed with the 
utmost vigilance. The sheep's nostrils are near the ground ; the 
shepherd may perceive nothing amiss when he enters the stable, 
while the flock are sickening on ammonia. 

Lambing in the Field. — When the lambing season is some- 
what protracted, the latter part of it will probably extend into 
the grass, and there will occur spells of sharp weather of some 
days' duration, when the ewes will have to go afield some part of 
the day at least. It is desirable to keep them housed from cold 
winds as much as possible, but they cannot be confined alto- 
gether. On such days, the shepherd should watch the flock 
carefully, for there is a fatality (or, rather, an explainable nat- 
ural cause), which brings lambs fastest in the roughest weather. 
There ought to be a piece of good pasture, pref erabl}^ of orchard 
grass, held in reserve near the sheep-house for such weather. 
When a lamb is dropped, unless unusually vigorous, it will 
rapidly chill in a cutting wind. The shepherd can decide what 
to do in five minutes. Let him be provided with a light wheel- 
barrow, a piece of soft wool-twine and a sheep-hook. Capture 
the ewe, lay her on her side ; take a turn in the middle of the 
string around the lower hind-leg and secure it with one knot ; 
draw in the under fore-leg, and secure m the same way ; then 



98 THE AMERICAN MERIXO 

the upper hind-leg ; lastly, the upper fore-leg, and make fast. 

Lay the lamb between her Lind-legs to keep it warm, then 
wheel them gently to the stable. Here, if assisted to suck 
once, it will probably do well thenceforth. 

When the flock is brought in after a windy day, care must be 
taken that no lamb is left behind. They are apt to hide away 
duriQg the day in sheltered crevices. 

Goitrous Lambs.— Under the headings " Congenital Goitre," 
and "Imperfectly Developed Lambs," Dr. Randall treats at 
great length certain abnormal phenomena appearing in very 
young lambs, which in all probability are reducible to the same 
category as regards their cause, and that cause wholly adven- 
titious. 

Under the heading of "Goitre," I shall have something 
further to say in a subsequent chapter ; at present it will be 
sufScient to note somewhat more particularly the effects of too 
high feeding with grain, especially with com. Mr. H. Miller, 
of Delaware County, Ohio, in a communication to the Ohio 
Farmer, stated that he had had occasion to suspect that exces- 
sive corn-feeding of the ewes produced goitre in the lambs ; and, 
by dividing the flock into two portions, and feeding one lightly 
and the other heavily, he satisfied himself, by the absence of the 
malady from the progeny of the lighter-fed ewes, that his 
suspicions were correct. 

The flock-master of extended experience will often, in his 
earher career, find himself wondering why it is that the fattest, 
*' stockiest" ewes in his flock will occasionally yean the small- 
est, whitest, most puny lambs. Sometimes, however, instead 
of being phenomenally under-sized, the lamb will reach the 
average stature, or even exceed it ; but it will be of a flaccid, 
soft, muscular development ; the under-side of the hoofs very 
spongy ; the skin pallid, especially around the hps, nose, the 
septum of the nose, the cihary caruncles, and the natural ori- 
fices of the body. It is weak — the least obstruction of the 
liquor amnii or slime about the nostrils will prevent it from 
getting its breath : the liquor itself is colorless, a robust lamb 
being generally enveloped in yellow liquor. If it survives at all, 
it will be hours before it can stand, even under the stimulus of 
warm sunshine. The ewe will be subject to garget. 

The probability is, that the mother of this lamb was over-fed 
on corn. She may have been sterile the preceding year, and 
consequently fat at the coupling season, and she remained so 
throughout the winter, to the detriment of the lamb as above 



FOR WOOL Xl<fl) MUTTOlSr. 99 

described. Still, experience and observation both convince me 
that there is little danger of having breeding ewes too fat if 
they have plenty of exercise in the open air. The errors are 
nearly all committed upon the other side, by having them too 
poor. A fat ewe may not produce as large a lamb at birth as a 
thinner one, but nine times out of ten the fat ewe's lamb will 
be the larger when a month old. 

On the other hand, a ewe sometimes enters the period of 
gestation in high condition, and continues so for a month or 
two, then begins to fall off under good feeding, and as the end 
of her term approaches, staggers under her burden. Parturition 
is accomplished with great difficulty ; the chances are that the 
lamb will be still-born ; she will cast her fleece as a result of 
puerperal fever. She has no constitution, and is valueless for 
a breeder ; she ought to be drafted from the breeding flock and 
fattened. 

The simple fact that a ewe disowns her lamb, however per- 
sistently, should not condemn her as a breeder. When she has 
little or no milk, it seems to be a monition of instinct that she 
can not rear it, and she abandons it accordingly. Under more 
favoring circumstances next year she may prove the most 
affectionate of mothers. This has often occurred in my ex- 
perience. 

Green Rye for Ewes. — ^When grown on dry or well-drained 
uplands, green rye is undoubtedly a very valuable resource in 
spring, for ewes in lamb ; but when cultivated on rich, moist, 
river bottoms, its deleterious effects are beyond question. Al- 
though only moderately nutritious and rather distasteful to 
stock, in comparison with other kinds of green plants, still its 
exceptional earliness, bringing it forward at a time when there 
is nothing else above ground eatable, imparts to it a high value. 
I find by referring to my farm journal, that I have one year 
mown a fair swath of it as early as March 25. 

It is well known that rye is subject, especially during cold, 
damp seasons, to the attack of a parasitic fungus, which attaches 
itself to the seed m its earliest development. This causes it to 
grow out m a long, dark excrescence shaped like a cock's spur, 
whence its name, ergot. This fungus may be detected by the 
microscope, not only m the head, but also m other portions of 
the plant ; and the white sporidia or dust on the surface of the 
ergot will inoculate other plants with the disease, if scattered in 
the soil at their roots, or applied to the forming seeds. 

The therapeutic action of ergot is so well known as to require 



100 THE AMERICAN MERI]S"a 

but a mere mention. It affects the uterus, tending to accelerate 
labor, and after parturition, to expel the placenta. Now for its 
actual effect on pregnjmt ewes. My rye patches are sown 
necessarily on the river bottoms, where it grows rank and is 
liable to be spurred. In my earlier ignorance I allowed the 
ewes to run on it nearly through the whole lambing season. 
They gave me an unusual and (at that time) unaccountable 
amount of trouble. When I succeed in inducing a ewe to 
recognize and own a lamb, I expect no more trouble with her 
if she has plenty of milk. But here they acted regardless of all 
precedent. I would establish practical relations between a ewe ' 
and lamb, both of them strong and healthy ; she would have a 
full supply of milk for it, and everything would go on correctly 
for two or three days, and then, the first thing I knew, the lamb 
would be going around drawn up nearly double, disowned and 
half starved. The ewes were in good condition and full of milk. 
Several of the lambs seemed to have been dropped prematurely. 
The dams paid no attention to them. Myself and hii-ed man 
were chasing, tying up, whipping, and otherwise employing 
coercive measures toward refractory ewes, all through the sea- 
son. It was a warm, early spring, and there seemed no excuse 
for such wanton proceedings. Toward the end of the season 
the flock was removed to a field of red clover, and in about a 
week the trouble ceased. It is my opinion that the fungoid 
spores were present already in the young plants. If there is 
any reason to suspect their presence, pregnant ewes should not 
be allowed to graze on rye for a fortnight before yeaning, and 
not for a week or ten days after. 

Defective Teats. — In case a ewe has had a teat clipped off 
by a careless shearer, she ought not to be admitted to the breed- 
ing-flock, but if she has got in through oversight, she had better 
be marked for rejection next time, unless she is otherwise ex- 
ceptionally valuable. The orifice will be grown up, but a new 
one can be created by inserting a small trocar and canula, and 
leaving the latter in for several days, withdrawing it every day 
to apply some ointment of tar and powdered vitriol, which will 
assist the healing process. 

Sometimes a middle-aged ewe will have a teat which, though 
yielding wholesome milk, is enormously enlarged, so that the 
lamb can not deplete it without assistance. The teat must be 
taken in hand promptly, else it will become so engorged as to 
be feverish, and then it will be many days before the ewe will 
permit the lamb to touch it. She must be kept up on dry feed. 



FOR WOOL AXD MUTTON. 101 

and the milk withdrawn several times a day, until the lamb 
gets hungry. It is singular how soon a bright lamb will get 
into a habit of depending on one teat, and it is sometimes neces- 
sary to smear the favorite one with tar for a while, to make the 
lamb take to the large one. 

Twins. — With the Merino ewe, twins are seldom desirable, 
unless it is iu a standard or stud-flock, where the great value of 
the lambs will justify very high artificial feeding. If the ewe 
is large and a free milker, and the twins of about equal size, she 
may be allowed to retain both, and should be put m a small 
enclosure or pasture alone with them, until they become thor- 
oughly accustomed to each other. But if one is conspicuously 
smaller than the other, the shepherd will generally be the 
gainer by giving the dwarf to a neighbor. If he has a fresh, 
lambless ewe, he can compel her to adopt it, but he must make 
up his mind to struggle with her for two or three weeks. 

Stiff Neck. — Lambs running afield in damp, cold weather, 
are subject to rheumatism in this form. The great cervical 
muscles are flattened and rigid, the head is drawn down almost 
to the ground, so that the little animal, though perfectly bright 
otherwise, is unable to suck. I have never given any treatment 
beyond assisting the lamb to suck for a few days. I had a case 
once which lasted twenty days before recovery was complete. 
Doctor Randall states that a cure can readily be effected by 
administering a teaspoonf ul of turpentine, in two of lard, reduc- 
ing the dose for a very young lamb. It is one of the evils at- 
tendant upon lambing before the season is sufficiently advanced 
to afford grass-made milk and sunny weather. 

Castration and Docking.— It is rather severe on the ram- 
lambs, to have to undergo castration and docking together ; yet 
out of many hundreds I have operated upon, I have lost less 
than a half-dozen from excessive bleeding. I attach no import- 
ance to the " signs " in this matter, and never consult the 
almanac beforehand ; but there are undoubtedly certain times 
in the month when bleeding will be more prolonged than at 
others. If the reader is skeptical on this point, before he scoffs 
at the "superstition" of an old shepherd, let him make the 
experiment for himself. Instead of consulting the almanac, 
then, let the flock-master perform an operation (docking is the 
best test, as castration causes little bleeding anyway), on two or 
three lambs, and if they bleed profusely, he had better defer the 
operation a few days. 



102 THE AMERICAN" MEKIXO 

If castration and docking could be performed without assist- 
ance, it would be best, every way, to attend to them both before 
the lamb is a week old, but it is not very convenient to do it 
without an attendant, and for this reason, most shepherds wiU 
always continue the practice of going through the whole flock 
at once. Still, if settled warm weather is to be expected before 
lambing is over, it is best not to wait for that, but set to work 
promptly, and then finish the stragglers in a second batch. 

Castration ought always to be performed before docking ; it 
requires a finer and sharper blade than the latter. Cool, cloudy 
weather is best. Let the flock be driven up in the evening, 
without heating or worrying the lambs ; then, during the night, 
they will measurably recover from their stiffness and be ready 
to follow the ewes afield in the morning. Let the catcher bring 
forward one lamb at a time, and hold it perpendicular before 
him, head uppermost, back against his breast, a fore-leg and a 
hind-leg grasped in each hand, but not drawn together so 
tightly as to make the belly concave and draw the testicles 
back. The operator seizes the end of the scrotum and cuts it 
off well up — the closer up it is cut the less cod there is left to 
hinder the shearer. Then he takes the scrotum in the right 
hand, works the testicles down, seizes one at the time between 
the thumb and fore-finger of the left hand, jamming the thumb 
hard down (it takes a powerful grasp and a stiff thumb to draw 
the testicle of a robust lamb), and draws it out with a steady 
pull. Care should be taken to slip the skin, the fat and the 
interior pouch, or membrane up, so that nothing shall be 
grasped but the naked testicle. The knife should not be used 
except to cut off the lower end of the scrotum, nor is there any 
particular virtue in any other method of severing the spermatic 
cord, except by pulling. It is wholly unnecessary to scrape it 
off. Let not the operator be alarmed if the spermatic nerve (the 
white, glistening cord), is drawn out at considerable length, and 
three or four inches of it left danghng from the pouch. It is 
bloodless, and will not attract flies ; it soon dries up and wiU 
give no trouble. In all my experience, I have never found it 
necessary to apply any ointment to the pouch to keep off flies, 
if only the stump of the tail is well protected. Blood is apt to 
trickle from this down the whole length of the legs, and it 
needs careful attention. 

The catcher still holding the lamb in the position above de- 
scribed, the operator takes another knife and severs the tail. 
He should first carefully ascertain by feeling with the thumb 



FOR WOOL A]^D MUTTO^^. 103 

where the joint is, for the bone is hard to cut in a lamb of some 
weeks' age. The length of tail to be left, is not the unim- 
portant matter the careless shepherd might think it ; too long a 
stump is inconvenient to shear, and promotes fouling ; too short 
a one detracts greatly from the beauty of the animal. An inch 
in length on the under side is enough ; this will round out in 
fair and seemly proportions, the horseshoe-shaped " escutcheon," 
which is a feature of much importance in the outward make-up 
of a handsome Merino. 

If the weather is likely to remain cool and cloudy for several 
days, until the blood dries up, no application will be needed. 
Otherwise, a half teaspoonful of fish-oil should be well worked 
into the wool at the stump of the tail, so that it may dribble 
downward. Tar is objectionable, it smears the wool. As fast 
as the lambs are docked they ought to be dropped outside the 
building, where they will not be disturbed in the further pur- 
suit of operations. 

The Scotch method of burning the tail off with a red-hot iron 
(several of which are kept heated close at hand), is a very good 
one. The operation is instantaneous, and the cauterization 
prevents bleeding. 

A writer in the Ohio Farmer contributes the following : 

" There is a better way of docking lambs than to use a chisel 
and mallet. The writer has used for two or three years a pair 
of toe nippers (the same as used for trimming the hoofs of 
sheep). The writer's plan is to take the toe nippers with him 
when he goes to look after the lambs each day, and dock and 
castrate all that are two or three days old. By the time the 
ewes are through lambing and ready to wash and shear, the 
Iambs will be healed and exempt from trouble with flies." 

I am inclined to believe that this would be an excellent 
method. One man could do the work alone. With the lamb 
held between the knees of the operator, as he sits on a box, the 
left hand should work the skin of the tail toward the body, so 
that when the tail is severed, there may be a hood or flap of 
skin to cover the bone and assist in healing the wound. With 
a stout pair of sheep-shears, castration might be performed at 
the same time ; for, rough as this method may seem, when the 
lamb is very young, the pouch and testicles may be severed at 
one stroke close to the belly, with the best of results. 

Re-docking. — Sometimes it happens that a lamb needs re- 
docking after it has attained a growth of some months. In 



104 • THE AMEBIC AH MERIXO 

case it is a ewe lamb, it is better to re-dock than to suffer an 
unsightly stump to remain. It may be done safely, but it 
would be advisable to sear the wound with a hot iron, or put on 
a pinch of powdered blue vitriol. 



CHAPTEE XI. 
TAGGING, WASHING ETC. 

Necessity for Tagging. — Where a very small flock is kept, 
and they run afield all winter, getting more or less old grass 
every day, they seldom scour when grass begins to grow green, 
and tagging is not necessary. But flocks which are confined 
througli the winter, no matter how healthy and how high their 
condition may be, are sure to contain a certain percentage, 
which, when turned out, wiU become polluted about the vent 
before the time for shearing comes on ; and the results of a 
neglect of tagging are so abominable, that no self-respecting 
farmer can afford to neglect this precaution. 

The utmost care should be exercised in handling pregnant 
ewes while tagging. Blakely's sheep chair is a good thing to 
hold sheep in while this operation is being performed. It is 
just high enough for the operator to stand up, leaning to the 
sheep a little, in a comfortable position to work. It is adjust- 
able so that it can be let out or taken up to conform to the size, 
and is adapted to all sheep. To tag sheep rapidly and well, the 
operator must be handy with the shears, gentle with the sheep, 
and have a mechanical eye. Many cut off twice as much v^ool 
as is necessary by not cutting in the right place, and leaving it 
where it should be cut ; and before shearing time comes around, 
some of the sheep are as bad as ever. Tag one sheep and let it 
go, and take a look at it when it is going from you, and you can 
tell if you have sheared in the right place to escape the falling 
dung. By thus observing, you can, by shearing a small area in 
the right place, thoroughly tag a sheep by cutting off a small 
quantity of wool. Where more wool is cut from one side than 
the other, it makes the sheep look one-sided, but done in a 
workman-like manner, it adds to rather than detracts from the 
looks of the sheep. 



FOR WOOL AXD MUTTOX. 105 

One year we clipped the tags from about seven hundred and 
sixty sheep, which, after being washed three times in warm 
soap-suds, weighed one hundred and eleven and one-half pounds. 
I calculate that at least one-quarter of this amount would have 
been lost, if it had remained on the sheep until the regular 
shearing, because it would have become formed into dung-balls 
or clipped off in fighting maggots. Say then that we saved 
thirty pounds ; at only forty cents a pound, it is worth twelve 
dollars. At one and a half cents per head for tagging, the 
operation cost ten dollars and ninety cents. The saving in 
wool paid for the labor, to say nothing of the avoidance of that 
most odious task that falls to the lot of the shepherd, the rid- 
ding of sheep from maggots. The ewes were heavy with lamb, 
but with careful handling, not one of them suffered any injury. 
Thus the udders were freed from wool, and the lambs all have 
clean, white faces, instead of the miserable, dung-smeared 
heads, which too often disgrace a flock. 

Tagging Wethers. — As wether lambs are apt to become 
fouled about the pizzle before shearing-time, and consequently 
fall a prey to maggots ; it is well to tag them in this place also, 
as well as about the vent. Even if no flies attack them, the 
wool becomes so clotted and heated with urine, as to create a 
festering sore. But I have never found it necessary to tag 
wethers under the belly after the first year's shearing. 

Clipping the Hoofs. — In all Merino flocks there is a certain 
percentage which will require to be caught and have their hoofs 
shortened twice a year ; sometimes a few will need it nearly 
every month. There is nothing better for this purpose than 
Dana's toe-shears ; and 1 have never found any better time for 
the operation in spring, than at the tagging. One man can 
catch and clip the toes, while another does the tagging. The 
operator, having caught the sheep, sets it on the buttock, with 
its back toward him, jams the left thumb between the hoofs to 
hold them well apart, and turns the. shears in such fashion as to 
cut each segment of the hoofs from within, the inside being 
softer. than the outside. If too thick and flinty, the hoof must 
be set on a solid block or board, and shortened with a chisel and 
mallet. Hoofs are always softest in wet weather. 

Policy of Washing. — A vast majority of experienced, well- 
informed shepherds are agreed upon three points : 
1. Washing is an injury, both to the sheep and to the washer, 
3. It is a benefit to the fleece. 



106 THE AMEEICAi^ MERI2s"0 

3. On account of the long-estabKshed, but more or less un- 
equal and unjust "rule of thumb," enforced by wool-buyers, by 
virtue of which unwashed fleeces are subject to deduction of 
one-third from the price of brook-washed clips, the keeper of an 
ordinary, out-door, wool-bearing flock, must wash his sheep or 
suffer pecuniary loss. 

As to the first point, it is hardly worth while for the oppo- 
nents of washing to assert that it is injurious to the sheep of 
average robustness and accustomed to run out-doors ; it is suffi- 
cient to claim (what can be truthfully asserted), that it would 
be difficult to find a flock in such high and uniform condition, 
that some one or more would not suffer detriment in washing. 
And for the sake of these few weaklings, it is a pity that the 
flock could not escape the ordeal of being forced into the water, 
which the sheep, above aU other domesticated animals, dislikes. 
By this I mean sudden and complete immersion. Every prac- 
tical shej^herd knows that hardy and well-fed sheep, even thor- 
oughbred Merinos, will stand tranquilly through long winter 
rains, until their fleeces are saturated, when ten steps would 
carry them under shelter ; nor will they be injured a particle 
thereby. 

In the course of my experience, I have washed every year 
from flve hundred to seven hundred sheep. Some years, when 
the weather was favorable, not only have I not lost any, but I 
could not discover that a single sheep was damaged. Other 
years, when cold rains supervened quickly upon washing, I 
have lost one per cent or more — a loss directly attributable to 
washing — to say nothing of the f alling-off in scores or hundreds 
more — undoubtedly a greater total loss than I should have suf- 
fered from selling the clip unwashed. 

In the hiUy region of Southern Ohio, in which my experience 
with sheep has been cast, foot-rot is extremely rare ; and I have 
never known, or heard of a case, where a flock contracted it on 
the road to the washing-pen, or in it. Yet, I am not in the least 
disposed to be-little the dangers from this source, which are 
urged by the opponents of washing as an argument of capital 
force and importance against the custom, where this malady 
prevails. 

As to the washers themselves, there are plenty of men, young 
and hardy, who could wash sheep all day, once a year, for a 
generation, and not perceive in themselves any falling-off in 
physical vigor; yet none the less sui'ely and inexorably they 



FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTON. 107 

will suffer loss of vitality in the end. I have never known one 
to incur anything bey-ond a trivial chill or cold, which disap- 
peared under mild treatment. The old-fashioned practice of 
taking whiskey on this occasion, only made matters worse. 
Alcohol is specifically determined to the brain under natural 
conditions, and when, in addition, the blood is driven thither 
by the chill of the lower extremities, drunkenness is tolerably 
certain to ensue. 

All sheep are injured by washing, indirectly ; that is, by the 
necessity of wearing their fleeces in hot weather, while waiting 
for the water to get warm enough for washing. This is true of 
dry flocks, and still more so of suckling ewes. In the earUer 
years of my shepherding, I often wondered why lambs, after 
springing forward rapidly for three or four weeks in the last of 
April and first of May, would then experience a decided check, 
becoming before shearing time, slightly "pot-bellied," less 
rangy, exhibiting those unmistakable, but often hardly de- 
scribable changes of form, by which the trained eyes of the 
shepherd detects stunting. I am now satisfied it was caused by 
the drying-up of the ewes' milk, as a result of the fevered blood 
produced by carrying heavy fleeces in the piece during the 
early heat of our American summer, Proof of this was fur- 
nished by the continued progressive thrift of lambs running 
alongside, whose mothers had been shorn before settled hot 
weather commenced. 

As to the second proposition, it is hardy necessary to state to 
a practical man that a washed fleece is easier to shear and 
easier to do up than an unwashed. " Shearing in the dirt " is 
hard work, and the fleece falls to pieces in a vexatious fashion 
on the table, especially if the sheep has been fed for the sham- 
bles, or is naturally very yolky. It is essential to the ready and 
accurate sorting of a fleece into the half-dozen or more grades 
to which it is ultimately assigned, that it should be kept well 
together, and washing is a great aid thereto. For instance, if 
shoulder- wool is worth fifty cents a pound, and the belly-wool 
fifteen cents, and they are mingled together, the sorter will 
invariably classify the mixture below its real value, if he does 
not incontinently consign it all to the lower grade of the two. 
This does not concern the farmer, except in a large way ; he 
would not probably be paid by the wool-buyer a cent more for 
the weU-f olded fleece than for the jumbled one ; the growth and 
condition being the same in both. But it does react upon him 
unfavorably in this way : It prejudices the manufacturer 



108 



THE AMEHICAK MERIXO 



against unwashed wool, and he makes it the subject of hostile 
discrimination. 

It is not Avorth while to go to the length of some advocates of 
washing, who assert that the buyer can not classify wool as 
correctly when unwashed as when it is washed. A genuine 
expert, though he may declare that he likes the feel of washed 
wool better, can pronounce upon the actual merits of a clip as 
well in one condition as the other. If not, he has mistaken his 
calling. 

As to the third proposition, it is not worth while here (for this 
work is addressed, not to wool-buyers, but to wool-growers), 
to enter upon an extended discussion of the justice or injustice 
of the " one-third rule." I shall confine myself principally to 
the statement of a few practical facts, which will furnish the 
reader with a ready-made commentary upon this time-honored 
practice of the buyers. 

At my request, Mr. A. F. Breckenridge, of Brown's Mills, 
Ohio, who is one of our best breeders of fuU-bloocls, furnished 
me a transcript from his flock book, which is of interest as bear- 
ing on the question of washing, In 1877 he washed fifty-eight 
sheep and sheared them about June 1 ; in 1878 he let the same 
sheep go unwashed and sheared them April 30. Both years he 
recorded the weight of ever}-^ fleece to an ounce. I give these 
tables entire. It will be observed that I have worked out the 
percentage of loss for the first table. 



SIX-TEAR OLDS. 



FIVE-YEAR OLDS. 



Bo. 



41 
45 
46 
49 
50 
52 
58 
54 
55 
57 
60 
61 



Washed. 



Un- 
washed. 



Lbs, Oz. Lbs. Oz 
8 03 



6 00 
6 00 
6 04 



Ferc'tage Sheep', 
lost. ' ! M>. 



11 
10 
14 
14 
17 
83 
20 
21 
30 
8 
15 
18 
20 



Washed. 



Un- j Ferc'tage 



washed. 



lost. 



Lbs. Oz.lLbs. Oz. 



7 00 

5 10 

7 08 

7 0,3 

5 04 

6 08 
6 00 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 



109 



FOUR-TEiLR OLDS. 



THREE-YEAR OLDS. 



^^'^''''^WashedA 



No 



65 
66 
67 
68 
69 
70 
71 
72 
73 
74 
75 
76 
77 
78 
79 
80 



U,c- 
loashed. 



lost. 



Lbs. 
5 
6 
5 
6 

10 

11 
8 
7 
6 
7 
6 

10 
5 
6 
5 
7 



Oz. Lbs. Oz. 



8 04 



OS 
12 

04 I 



13 


00 


11 


12 


9 


12 


10 


00 


10 


02 


10 


08 


8 


00 


11 


08 


7 


02 



9 06 



Sheep^s 

No. 



85 
86 
87 
88 
89 
90 
91 
92 
93 
94 
95 
96 
97 



Un- 



'^"*''^^- j ica^hed. \ lost. 



iLbs. Oz. Lbs. Oz.! 

81 10 

82 1 9 

83 11 

84 I 10 



10 06 
9 03 

11 OJ 
11 00 
10 12 
10 00 

9 03 

10 00 

9 03 

10 08 

10 00 

9 00 

10 04 

8 12 

10 00 

11 00 
10 00 
10 00 



Of course these tables do not make a thoroughly fair exhibit, 
since the unwashed fleeces had only eleven months' growth. In 
the computations herewith following, I have in every instance 
added one-eleventh to the unwashed weights, though that gain 
is doubtless somewhat inaccurate, since the fleece would grow 
less than an average during the twelfth month. But it is prob- 
ably as near an approach to correctness as will ever be attained 
until some experimenter who can afford it shears a flock at the 
same date for several years, alternately washed and unwashed. 

I find that the three-year-olds suffered an average loss of one 
pound, fourteen and two-thirds of an ounce per fleece, or nine- 
teen per cent, on an average fleece of eleven pounds. 

The four-year-olds suffered a loss of three pounds and one 
ounce, or twenty-nine per cent, on an average fleece of ten 
pounds and six ounces. 

The five-year-olds suffered a loss of two pounds and one 
ounce, or twenty-four per cent, on an average fleece of eight 
pounds and eight ounces. 

The six-year-olds suffered a loss of two pounds and one ounce, 
or twenty-four per cent, on an average fleece of eight pounds 
and eight ounces. 

In looking over the above tables, the reader will perhaps be 
surprised to observe that generally the heaviest fleeces, which 
doubtless lost most in the scouring-tub, lost least in the brook 



110 THE AMERICAi^ MEKI]S"0 

or washing process. The explanation of this fact is, that where 
very yolky sheep are housed, the yolk becomes more or less 
inspissated, so that it does not yield to the solvent action of cold 
water. In confirmation of the showing of the tables in this 
respect, I will adduce a remarkable experience which was given 
me by another breeder of full-bloods, a perfectly trustworthy 
gentleman. He had a ram which he had shorn three years, and 
his heaviest fleece in that time was twenty-two pounds and 
twelve ounces. The fourth year he took him into the water, 
and with his own hands \s ashed him thoroughly. After a lapse 
of two weeks he was shorn and yielded twenty-four pounds and 
four ounces ! 

There were occasional disturbing factors which produced ap- 
parent discrepancies in the above tables, as, for instance, the 
suckling of a lamb one year and not the other ; but, as a geo- 
logist would say, the extent of the plateau is so considerable 
that the location of the "fault" is scarcely discernible. 

Now, the average shrinkage on these four lots of sheep was 
twenty-four per cent. Reasoning from this fact, the farmer 
would probably arrive promptly at the conclusion that the de- 
duction on unwashed wool ought to be twenty-four per cent., 
(say, one quarter), instead of one-third required by the manu- 
facturer. But this view is erroneous. 

The fallacy lies in the fact, that the basis of all calculations 
as to the value of wool is the scoured pound, in other words, 
clean wool. This is the foundation of all reckonings. The 
manufacturer simply ascertains what the scoured pound is 
worth in the markets of the United States — X, XX, XXX, or 
picklock, quarter-blood or common, medium, or whatever the 
grade may be. Then he glances at a table in which are given 
the average rates of shrinkage of washed and unwashed wools, 
of the different grades, from different sections of the country ; 
with the value of each per pound. 

To illustrate, let us take the general average for the United 
States. Messrs. David Scull, Jr. & Bro., wool commission mer- 
chants of Philadelphia, in a letter to myself, stated that the rate 
of shrinkage in scouring is sixty-seven to seventy per cent, on 
unwashed Merino wool, and forty-eight to fifty -two per cent, 
on washed. (My friend, Mr. W. M. Brown, Superintendent of 
the Beverly Woolen Mill, gave the figures as fifty-nine and forty 
per cent, respectively ; but the clips he was accustomed to 
handle were lighter and drier than the average of the United 
States). 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 



Ill 



That the figures given by Messrs. Scull are approximately 
correct, is shown by the following table, which gives the results 
of the scouring of seventeen fleeces sent by the Missouri Wool 
Grower's Association, from Sedalia, to Messrs. Walter Brown 
& Co., of Boston, and scoured by a professional scourer at Wal- 
pole, Mass. : 



5 



s 


?^ 




1<" 


tl 


1^ 


V-^ 


^1 


iS. •'~ 






1^ 


rc: a: 


i< s 


tl 


■S'< 


i 


gS 


^^ 



S CO 



Merino ewe. . 
Grade ewe . . . 
Merino ram. . 
Merino ewe. . 
Merino ewe. . 
Merino ram. . 
Merino ram. . 
Merino ewe. . 
Merino ram. . 
Merino lam. . 
Merino ewe. . 
Merino ewe. . 
Merino ram. . 
S. 1). ram.... 
S. D. M. ram. 
Cotsw'd ewe 
Cotsw'dewe. 



Tears 
3 
1 
2 
3 
3 
3 
7 
1 
1 
2 
2 
4 

l 
1 
3 

1 



Days. 


Lbs. 


Oz. 


372 


15 


5 


365 


8 


10 


372 


28 


4 


376 


17 


8 


376 


16 


^ 


370 


28 


14 1 


360 


21 


1 


360 


13 


7 


365 


12 


6 


360 


25 


7 


358 


18 


1 


; 365 


17 


10 


! 371 


25 


IB ' 


! 365 


S 





' 865 


6 


b 


335 


16 


5 


^65 


12 


8 



Lbs. Oz.iLbs. 

14 13i 5 
8 4 2 

27 11 7 
17 0^1 5 

15 15 I 5 

28 13 I 7 
20 11 i 6 

1^ 
4 
3 

5 



11 10 



Oz. 
9^ 

14 

14 

IBi 
6 

15i 

121 


11? 

12* 
3i 
6i 
4* 
7i 
3 
3 

11* 



Per ct. 
62.32 
65.16 
71.69 
65.69 
66.78 
72 40 
67.15 
61.82 
61. 8t; 
6''.05 
C5 05 

es.r.s 

70.h2 
56.39 
48 05 
30.03 
4 .07 



$4.04 
2.26 
5.45 
3.90 
3.55 
5.75 
4.66 
3.57 
3.45 
5.44 
4.33 
3.46 
4 69 
2.25 
214 
4t3 
2.97 



We may accept therefore the figures sixty-seven to seventy 
as a fair percentage of loss, with this resei-vation, however, that 
,a greater part of the unwashed wool of the Eastern States, as 
is evidently the case with that above tabulated, was taken from 
stud-flocks, housed sheep ; and that this percentage would be 
too high for ordinary Merino flocks. 

It may further be remarked, incidentally, that this table 
shows an invariable loss in the fleece between shearing and 
sorting. 

Now, let us suppose that the buyer purchases one hundred 
pounds of washed wool at thirty cents a pound. The shrinkage 
in scouring is forty-eight per cent. This leaves him fifty-two 
pounds of clean wool, costing thirty dollars. Now, suppose he 
wishes to purchase one hundred pounds of unwashed wool, how 
much must he pay per pound so that it shall cost him the same 
per scoured pound as the first lot? The rate of shrinkage here is 



112 THE AMERICAl^- MERIIS'O 

sixty-seven per cent. That is, one hundred pounds of un- 
washed wool will yield thirty-three pounds of scoured. This 
gives a simple problem in the " double rale of three." If fifty- 
two pounds cost thirty dollars, how much ought thirty-three 
pounds to cost ? 52 : 30 : : 33 : 19.03. 

That is, the hundred pounds would have to be bought for 
nineteen dollars and three cents, or nineteen and three-tenths 
cents a pound. This would require a deduction of a little over 
one-third from the price of washed wool. 

The rates of shrinkage in washing are varied a great deal by 
methods of feeding, by housing, by individual peculiarities, by 
modes and degrees of washing. These variations appear con- 
spicuously in Mr. Breckenridge's flock, ranging from eight to 
thirty-three per cent. If such differences exhibit themselves in 
the flock of a man who is a very careful breeder and feeder, 
and who has studiously sought after uniformity of type, what 
may we not look for in the flocks of a whole county ? How 
wide will be the differentiations in a State ? 

In view of these facts it seems little less than a truism to 
assert that the " one-third rule " is a very raw and crude prin- 
ciple on which to conduct the purchase of wool. 

Shearing Without Washing. — Col. F. D. Curtis writes 
vigorously in the Country Gentleman on this subject : 

*' I had an illustration of the differences between sheep shorn 
and unshorn, as to comfort and growth of sheep and lambs, 
this spring. A number of my flock were sheared in April, and 
the rest not till the last of June, and then before most of my 
neighbors. Those sheared in April are fat, while those which 
carried their fleeces did not gain at all in condition. I am satis- 
lied that sheep should be shorn without washing, and that they 
should be shorn by the first of May, or in any latitude before 
they can be turned out to spring pasture. Of course this early 
shearing should not take place where there are no provisions 
made for sheltering them. Where they can be kept within a 
comfortable enclosure, they will do better without the hot and 
debilitating fleeces. Their lambs will get more milk ; the sheep 
will be more active, eat more, and have more vigor. I have 
sheared sheep the first of April (latitude forty-three degrees 
north), and had no trouble. They must be kept out of the wind 
and wet. 

"When shorn so early and before going out to pasture, except 
in rare cases, it will not be necessary to tag them before the 



FOR WOOL AXD MUTTOI?". 113 

whole fleece is removed. There would be less trouble with 
ewes if they were sheared before having their lambs. The little 
lambs could get at the teat much better, and with a careful man 
to shear there would be no risk in handling the sheep. Lambs 
are often born after the ewes have been both washed and 
sheared, and do well. ****** A great deal of bother 
can also be saved, in trying to keep the sheep dry for the 
shearer, who very likely does not come. The annual bloating 
and starving of the sheep at shearing time can be dispensed 
with, as the sheep can be taken from the winter quarters, and 
when shorn returned to them. I am so impressed with the 
advantage of early shearing in this way, that I shall make it a 
rule to do so." 

In this section, Mr. M. Palmer, and Mr. J. Chadwick— the 
former after an experience of more than fifty years ; the latter 
with one nearly as long — have discarded washing, though both 
keep grade Merinos. Mr. Geo. S. Corp, owning about six hun- 
dred grade Merinos, has shorn them unwashed, about April 1, 
two years. Ho experienced a loss, one 3'ear, of nine dollars, 
and a gain the next year of seven dollars, saying nothing of the 
great gain in the condition of the sheep from being shorn early, 
without wetting. He will adhere to' the practice. 

Modes of AV ashing. — As wo wash in the river, we are ob- 
liged to wait rather late for the water to become warm enough. 
The extreme dates which I find, on referring to my farm jour- 
nal, are May 15 and May 29 ; the average will range between 
these two. When the washing season is at hand, I watcli my 
barometer. I want to have reasonable indications of a spell of 
rising, clearing weather, and I want to put the sheep into the 
water in the beginning of that spell, so that they may have as 
many days of steady sunshine as possible in which to dry off. 
Washing in the river, as I have said, involves the necessity of 
waiting, but it is a great convenience, especially if one can have 
a clean, gravelly beach on which to land them. In most places 
the bank is so sloping that it is necessary to build three sides 
I of a pen, but we are favored with an overhanging ledge of lime- 
stone. Jutting up against this, we put up three lines of port- 
able fence, making pens which front directly on the water. 
We crowd the foremost flock down the bank and keep them 
huddled against the u]pper pen, while three or four men catch 
and dip, and then pass them around the projecting fence into 
the first pen. They are now passed into the second pen, and 
the men at once proceed to washing, or else dip a second flock. 



114 THE AMERICAN MERIKO 

bringing these latter into the first pen. In either case the sheep 
are well soaked before the washing commences. 

I frequently catch the flock of breeding ewes myself, as I am 
unwilling to have them abused. (I should have stated above 
that we catch all the sucking lambs out and leave them behind 
in tiie sheep house.) There are men who, when they stand in a 
line in the water and pass the sheep from man to man, will do 
nothing but swing the sheep to and fro. I watch the washers, 
and instruct them to squeeze out every part of the fleece. A 
man need only go out deep enough to float the sheep off its feet, 
then by taking the wool between his forearms, he can squeeze 
out considerable sections at once. They land on a stony beach 
and no dirt gets into the wool, if they do flounder about. It is 
true, they travel home by a dusty road, but the dust which set- 
tles on them does not amount to anything. We turn them on 
a clean sod pasture to dry off. 

I have several times had suckling ewes come home from 
washing, hungry, go on a white clover pasture, eat greedily, 
and die of hoven in a few hours. 

Managing in this way, four men and a boy or two will pass 
seven hundred and flf ty sheep throii^h the water, take up the 
fence, and get home by four o'clock in the afternoon, and the 
sheep will be washed clean ; that is, as clean as cold water can 
make them. 

I have seen an arrangement which would commend itself to 
the farmer living at a distance from any large stream, since it 
can be employed on a mere mountain run ; it consisted of a 
plank box ten feet long, six feet wide, and deep enough to swim 
the sheep. The stream was dammed up, some distance above 
the place, and while the reservoir thus made was filling, a hole 
was dug out and plank fitted in, as described above. Steps at 
the end led to the bottom of the box, for taking in the sheep, 
and when washed they were let out on an inclined plane made 
of rough boards, with strips nailed on to prevent slipping. 
Here the water was squeezed from the wool, and the sheep 
passed out upon clean sward. Some arrangement of this kind 
is better (for a small flock), than to drive them a long distance, 
over a dusty road, and expose them to the danger of contracting 
the foot-rot or some other contagion from " scalawag" flocks. 

Some writers recommend a waterfall and a spout, under 
which the sheep can be held and washed by a man, without 
getting into the water himself. If a man is afraid of a wetting, 
he can pursue this course ; but the sheep will not be nearly as 



FOR WOOL AXD ML'TTOX. 115 

well washed as it would be if taken into deep water. If the 
washers can keep their bodies dry, they are not nearly so liable 
to receive injury from, their prolonged wetting. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SHEARING AND DOING UP WOOL. 

Length of Time Between Washing and Shearing.— How 
long a tune should be allowed to elapse between washing and 
shearing, is a question which must be determined by circum- 
stances. If the washing was done with thoroughness, the 
fleece was deprived of that modicum of yolk to which it is in 
fairness entitled to impart to it luster, elasticity, and, ir gen- 
eral, a good style ; and tlie farmer has a perfect right to allow 
his flocks to linger in the pasture until the sunshine has brought 
out the oily exudation, and until capillary attraction and the 
motion of the fibers one upon another have distributed it to the 
extremities. More than this honesty does not permit. When 
the wool has reached that condition of oiliness which may be 
found in a fine, healthy head of hair, on which a daily brushing 
has kept the natural oil distributed through its entire length, 
then, and not before, it should be shorn. What then shall be 
said of those flock-masters, who both keep such gummy flocks 
and so imperfectly wash them, that at shearing time the yolk 
may not only be seen glistening along the fibers in pellucid 
globules like glycerine, but even coagulated in yellow, pasty 
masses? Much depends on the weather after washing. If the 
sun is hot, ten days will be a long enough interval ; if the 
weather is cool and cloudy, two weeks will not be too long a 
period. 

General Managssient. — It is extremely convenient to have 
a pasture close at hand, from which the sheep can be brought 
up in small flocks as needed by the shearers. Thus they will 
keep full bellies, and the shearers will be troubled with fewer 
wrinkles. If a shower is threatening, of course the sheep will 
have to be closely housed over night. In " catching weather," 
we have frequently had to keep them confined until they became 



116 THE AMERICA]^" MERINO 

very hungry and hollow. Of course, also, the sheep-house will 
be kept well littered. This is essential throughout the house, 
but is especially important in the limited space where they are 
crowded in, a few at a time, to be caught. If the litter is 
replenished here every few hours, it will clean off their feet so 
that they will not foul the shearing-table. "VVe generally fence 
off this small space simply with hay- boxes, and suspend an 
empty barrel in the passage-way through which the shearers 
enter. My shearing-table is about five feet wide, by fifteen feet 
long, and is supported on trestles which bring the table about 
up to the shearer's knees. Now and then a shearer prefers to 
take his sheep right on the floor. 

The reader may or may not be familiar with a contrivance 
for holding the sheep fast during the operation of shearing. It 
consists of a large wooden bowl, in which the animal is set on 
its buttock and which i)revents it from kicking. To this bowl 
is attached a frame Uke a chairback, both bowl and frame 
revolving on a pivot in the centre of the bowl. A strap passes 
diagonally across the frame, by which the sheep is lashed to it. 
This relieves the shearer of the strain of holding the sheep in 
position. By unbuttoning the strap, the sheep can be reversed 
for the other side to be shorn. 

I observe that our best shearers proceed with the fleece as 
follows : Beginning on the brisket, they shear down past the 
arm-pits, and then from right to left clear across the belly in 
successive clips or strips, until the whole belly piece is taken off 
and left hanging on the left side of the fleece. Then they open 
up the neck, and beginning at the ears, shear neck and bodr to 
the rump on the left side, running the shears round to the back- 
bone, and holding them in such a position that ijie clips or 
flutes left by them are parallel with the ribs, not only on the 
body, but on the neck. Then turning the sheep over, they shear 
the right side in the same manner. When clipped in this way, 
the sheep presents a zebra-like appearance, which is commend- 
able for its regularity and workman-like neatness. 

Much depends on the manner of shearing. The wool should 
not be cut twice, as this injures the appearance of the fleece 
when done up, also lessens its value to the manufacturer, as 
there will be more or less waste in the combs and cards. The 
shearer should keep the fleece together, not parting it on the 
shoulder as some do. I have seen shearers open the fleece on 
the right shoulder, running up the neck from the middle of this 
shoulder, and shearing to the middle of the left shoulder, and 



FOR WOOL a:^d mutto^^. 117 

by the time the fleece was off this part was in pieces. I would 
give all such shearers the " go-by." Both shoulders should be 
left whole, as here is the finest wool of the fleece. Neither 
should the shearer cut a second time the portions clipped over 
in the spring in tagging ; the wool is so short here that it is of 
no value, and if little locks of it are seen about the fleece they 
give a suspicion of chipping or mincing. 

Sorting ind Marking Sheep.— Now is the time above all 
others in the year for the flock-master to subject the sheep to a 
critical examination, with a view to determine whether it is 
worthy of being longer retained. I find either of the following 
methods good : Have a rope hanging before each shearer with 
a strap at the end of it, which can be buckled around the sheep 
just behind the fore -legs in such a manner as to allow only its 
hind feet to touch the floor. This will keep it from escaping 
until the master, who is supposed to be occupied tying the 
fleeces, can find leisure to inspect the fleece and put such mark 
upon the sheep as he may wish. But a better way would be 
for him to turn over the tying to an experienced operator, and 
give his attention altogether to the inspection and marking of 
the sheep. I have a small grocer's scale on a low table, with a 
platform of light boards attached, on which the shearer can 
deposit the fleece. A single glance will reveal whether the 
weight of it comes up to the required standard or not, and a 
mark can then be affixed to the sheep accordingly. 

The average flock-master, who does not care to go to the ex- 
pense of having his flock entered in some one or more of the 
fashionable Registers, will scarcely find it worth while to fol- 
low any complicated system of record, such as is recommended 
by Dr. Randall. If he wishes to observe a system of number- 
ing, he will hardly find anything better for the purpose than 
Dana's ear-labels. If the breeding flock is so small as to require 
only one ram, the owner has no option, and will not be required 
to institute any very fine discriminations among his ewes. But 
if it is large enough to demand the services of several rams, it 
will then be advisable to record in a book a few points, as 
"length of staple," '' yolkiness," ''density," etc., with a view 
to assigning each ewe to such a ram as shall be most likely to 
correct her deficiencies. 

After trying several different plans of marking, I have 
adopted substantially the following : I employ red lead, or 
Venetian red, with linseed oil ; tar is highly objectionable, since 
it makes a lasting clot which has to be clipped off before the 



118 THE AMERICAN MERIi^'O 

fleece can be used by the manufacturer. First, I affix the letter 
of ownership — on the left hip for a ewe, on the left shoulder for 
a wether. It is important to mark all sheep on the same side, 
so that the eyes of the master can catch the mark readily aa 
they circle around him. In addition to this, I stamp on the 
right hip the letter O, denoting that the animal falls below the 
standard and is to be drafted. I use the same letter during the 
lambing season, to designate a ewe which has shown herself 
unfit for further service as a breeder. The selection of two- 
year-old ewes for the breeding flock next fall should be guided 
more by the form than by the fleece, but the latter is important, 
and unless the breeder keeps a book record of each member of 
his flock, he ought to affix at shearing some mark to denote an 
extra shearer. 

Folding the Fleece.— There should be near the wool-press 
a table or platform of amx^le size, on which fleeces may be 
deposited and spread out for folding. No fleece ought to be 
divided, however large it may be, for the sorter wishes to have 
the whole fleece before him, in order that he may divide it 
correctly into the different sorts. But it is permissible- to de- 
tach the belly -piece for convenience in shearing, if it is fol^ded 
into its proper place in the fleece. 

Tags, Etc. — The best course for the farmer to pursue in 
respect to that bone of contention, the tags, is to .sort out care- 
fully all very thick "sweat-locks," and the tags which are 
hard with dung, and wash them separately. Then the cleaner 
portions of the tags can be washed by themselves very much in 
the mode and measure of the wool on the sheep's back. The 
sweat-locks and the most objectionable tags should be put to 
soak m soft water for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, then 
washed out two or three times in warm soap-suds, and wrung 
out with a clothes-wringer. By this means they can be ren- 
dered white ; whereas, if washed aU together with cold water, 
the whole mass has a greenish cast, which is very objectionable 
to buyers. Tags washed thus thoroughly are perfectly entitled 
to be put inside the fleeces, a handful in each. 

Dead or pulled wool should be kept separate, because all parts 
of the fleece are mingled together, can not be sorted, and con- 
sequently grade about on a par with the lowest ; for this reason 
I prefer to remove the pelt from a dead sheep, as this retains 
eveiy sort of wool in its own position. With the pulled wool 
may be put all the bits from the shearing-table which are worth 



POK WOOL AXD MUTTON". 119 

picking up at all, for the hairy locks clipped from the legs are 
fit only for the manure-heap. 

No wool which is damp with maggots, dew, rain, urine, or 
dung, ought to be rolled up in the fleece ; it will heat and im- 
part to it a dark color and an offensive odor. Tag-locks which 
consist mostly of dung (being different from "sweat-locks," 
which are entitled to go with the fleece), are worth only four 
cents a jDOund, and ought to be excluded. ' ' Cots and common " 
form the coarsest grades of wool ; the hard-matted locks have 
to b3 broken up by machinery before they can be used, and are 
then fit only for the lowest kind of goods. On these fleeces the 
buyer will probably insist on a reduction of at least five cents 
per pound. The hard clot-bur ought to be pulled out (if the 
farmer is so negligent as to allow this to grow and get into the 
wool, he had better remove it before shearing), but for the 
beggar-lice (Cynoglossum Morisoni), there is not much help, 
though it injures goods by specking them. 

It is the lolder's task to spread out the fleece on the table, 
weather side uppermost, clip off all the dung-balls, gather it as 
nearly aB possible into the shape and density which it had on 
the animal's back, and then fold it for the press. The breech is 
folded over first, next the flank, then the neck, and lastly the 
flank to which is attached the belly-piece (the belly-piece ought 
to be where the sorter can flnd and remove it before he unfolds 
the entire fleece). The fleece ought now to be about square. 
Across the middle of this square the folder lays his left arm, 
and with a dextrous motion of the right, folds (not rolls), one 
half upon the other. Working an arm under each end of the 
fleece, he lifts it from the table with the two edges of the fold 
against his breast, and lays it in the press. 

Wool-Press. — In my own practice, I have been able to do up 
wool most satisfactorfly with what may be called a rolling press 
(in contradistinction to a flat press), shown in figure 8. The 
outline dimensions are as follows : The table is two feet six 
inches high, two feet two inches wide, and four feet long. The 
leaves are four feet long and one foot wide. The box inclosed 
between the leaves is eleven inches wide. The head piece c c c, 
which is concave on the inside to adjust itself to the circum- 
ference of the fleece, is six and one-half inches high. The side- 
pieces of the table project far enough beyond the end to sup- 
port the roller, e, which is three inches in diameter at the thick- 
est part, tapering slightly toward the ends. The drop leaf, h &, 
is hinged, and falls forward toward the operator. When the 



120 



THE A.MERICAK MERHsTO 



fleece is placed in position the drop-leaf is raised to a perpen- 
dicular, where it is held by the upright, /, which works on a 
roller. This roller might be placed in the top of the table 
legs, instead of being a few inches from them, as in the en- 
graving. 
The ileece beiug now in the box, the leather band, d d, (six 




feet long and eleven inches wide) is carried forward over it, and 
the loop in the end is fastened to tlie roller by a little kon hook. 
One end of the band being fastened to the head-piece, when the 
other end is wound up on the roller it draws the fleece down 
into a tight drum-shaped package. Tiie strings, g, entering the 
three holes in the table frame, pass up through three others in 



FOE WOOL A:N^D MUTTON". 121 

the bottom of the box at 3, 4, 5, and so along under the fleece 
to the head-piece, being fastened in creases at the top of it. The 
leather band has three shts in it, through which the ends of the 
strings can be reached with the ri^ht hand, while the left brings 
up the slack, and the knots are tied on the top of the fleece. 

The ratchet is now lifted, the roller runs back, the band is 
detached and thrown off, the drop-leaf is let down, and the 
strings cut with the knife, which should be kept lying at the 
foot of the head piece under the fleece. The strings are now 
drawn up and fastened in their creases, and the press is ready to 
receive another fleece. I find it an advantage to let the twine 
pay out from the inside of the ball instead of the outside. 

If the fleece was properly folded according to the above 
directions, it will come out from the press a cylinder (a better 
shape than a cube), and it will be so bound in one part by 
another that bulging or bursting is almost impossible. 

Storing. — A wool-room need not necessarily be ornate, but it 
shfmld be of ample size, convenient to the shearing-room, and 
made of dressed lumber. It ought to be furnished with win- 
dows, and yet so made that i t can be shut up perf ectl}' dark and 
tight enough to exclude bumble-bees, mice and rats, which are 
fond of burrowing in wool. If on the ground floor, it should be 
so high that rats can not bank up the earth underneath to 
touch the floor, as this will cause the wool to mold. But if 
space on the ground is considered too valuable to be appropriated 
to a room which is used only for a few months, it may be con- 
structed overhead, and the fleeces pitched up one by one from 
the press ; or the sheep may be hoisted into the second story by 
an elevator and be shorn there, as in a sheep-house to be 
described hereafter. 

The important point in storing wool is, to have the pile of 
such shape that the buyer can, if he wishes, inspect every fleece 
without moving it from its place. The best contrivance I have 
seen for this purpose, is one which is employed by Mr. C. C. 
Smith, of Waterford, Ohio. This consists of a double row of 
upright studding, running across the room nearly to the wall at 
each end. These studs are framed together into something like a 
corn-crib, the width of which is only sufficient to accomodate 
one average fleece. This frame-work consists of smooth, light 
slats, stretching across between the studding, far enough apart 
to prevent a fleece from slipping between, and all of them in- 
clined inward like the slats of window-shutters. This inclined 
position allows the fleeces to settle smoothly. The slats can aU. 



12J^ THE america:s" meeixo 

be taken out down to the floor, and then slipped into place one 
after another as the fleeces are piled up. 

Fleeces stored this way will lose from two to three per cent, 
in weight in the course of six months; while a large pile close to 
the ground will shrink principally in the outside fleeces, and 
those in the interior will retain sufficient moisture to keep the 
shrinkage of the whole somewhere near one per cent. As a 
matter of course, very yolky wool will shrink more than the 
dry and light. I once had a pile of ram's fleeces lose about two 
and three-quarters per cent, in sixty-four days. 

Speed in Shearing. — The neatest shearer in the county in 
which I reside, once sheared for me fifty-eight head inside of 
ten working hours ; they were about three-quarter bloods. I 
challenge any man to leave a sheep in better shape than he does. 
In his prime, he averaged forty-five to fifty a day. Another 
noted shearer in this county, has sheared over seventy Saxons 
in one day— seventy-seven, if I remember rightly. But of such 
grades as are generally found in this county, an average good 
shearer, working by the head, will clip thirty-five to forty in a 
day. The practice of "paying by the head" leads to racing 
between the shearers and a slighting of their work. Leg-wool 
is of no value, it is true, but a shearer who does not trim it off 
neatly, as well as that from the body, should be dismissed. It 
is best to employ capable and conscientious shearers, and pay 
them by the day. Six cents a head, or two dollars a day is 
commonly paid east of the Mississippi. 

Where to Sell Wool. — The average farmer will almost 
invariably find it to his interest to sell his clip in his own wool- 
room, unless the amount of it is so small that he can transport 
it to and fro in a wagon. Warned by the example of neigh- 
bors, I have never shipped a clip to a storing-house or commis- 
sion-house. After his wool has once passed from his sight, the 
farmer is practically powerless ; he had better make up his mind 
to accept without complaint whatever is tendered. But in his 
own wool-room, especially if the clip is thoroughly good, he is 
independent. 

Qualities and Grades of Wool.— It may be well to give 
here a brief extract from a little book on wool, issued by a wool 
commission firm of Philadelphia, Messrs. W. C. Houston, Jr., 
&Co. * 

" In any section or State all the wools are bought at about the 
same figure, whereas one clip will often be worth five cents per 



FOK WOOL AJy^D MUTTOi;r. 123 

pound more than another, on account of growth and condition. 
By growth is meant the length, strength and elasticity of the 
staple, the working properties of the wool, and whether it is 
healthy and of good grade, or weak, coarse and of wild and 
* frowsy ' character. By condition is meant whether the fleeces 
are light and bright, or heavy with grease and dirt, or dark in 
color. Condition relates chiefly to shrinkage in scouring for 
goods. The more a fleece loses in scouring, the less it is worth 
to a manufacturer, on account of the smaller percentage of clean 
wool it yields. It can readily be seen that poor or heavy con- 
dition may overcome the advantages of good growth. Wool 
may be of good growth like some breeders' clips of well-bred 
Merino, but heavy with grease, and therefore poor in condition. 
And similarly, wool may be light and bright (in good condition), 
but havmg a wild, coarse or weak staple, will be of poor growth. 
If a fleece is wild and poorly grown, it will go into low-priced 
goods, no matter how light it is, so that poor gi-owth may be 
counterbalanced by good condition. 

** Good growth (sound, healthy staple) and good condition (a 
light, bright fleece) make up the first requisites of good wool. 
The growth and condition depend on care and intelligence in 
breeding, and also, considerably, on the locality where the wool 
is grown. In wild or prairie sections, the wool is apt to be 
'brashy' (weak staple and of wild growth), and is generally 
discolored by the soil ; while in localities more under cultiva- 
tion the wool is apt to be of better growth and brighter. This 
is one of the reasons why Ohio produces better wool than Wis- 
consin or Minnesota. As the land of a section is brought more 
under cultivation, the wools improve. But this must be sup- 
plemented by proper attention to breeding ; for we have received 
some lots of unwashed from Iowa, that were better in grade and 
condition than shipments from Indiana and Illinois*. 

*' The terms 'growth ' and ' condition ' being understood, we 
pass to grades. Fine is the full-blood Merino. In well and 
high-bred washed wools, fine is sub-divided into X and XX, 
according to the fineness of the fiber. Fine delaine is the elas- 
tic and long staple fiber, of about two and one-half inches in 
length throughout the whole fleece. -Medmm is a three-eighths to 
one-half blood Merino cross. The proper crossing of full-blood 
Merino on a coarse-wool sheep produces medium grade. Medium 
combing is the long staple of the medium grade, about three and 
a half inches in length. A cross of Merino and Leicester gives 



124 THE a:.iesicax mesixo 

medium combing — the Merino giving fineness of fiber and the 
Leicester length of staple. 

♦' Quarter blood may be called a mongrel wool ; like a cur 
dog, it has no defined characteristic of breed. It is generally 
wool of common sheep, that don't contain enough Merino blood 
to class as medium. Quarter may be a run-out medium, or a 
coarse sheep not yet suiSciently graded up with Merino blood. 
It is of a wilder and not so close a growth as medium. It is 
difficult for our western friends to make the distinction between 
medium and quarter blood. In the West all wool between the 
fine and extremely coarse fleeces is classed as medium ; whereas 
here that range is split into a medium and quarter blood, the 
bulk of the wool sometimes going to the latter grade. AVe can 
hardly make the difference more clear than we have, except to 
add that in a real medium the Merino blood can be distinguished 
in the fiber of the wool ; whereas in quarter blood the Merino 
characteristic has entirely died out, if it ever was there. Quar- 
ter is a wild, coarse wool, as contrasted with medium, which is 
a closer and finer growth, approaching Merino. Coarse or 
quarter combing is the long staple of quarter blood grade. 
Common is the rough, hairy wool and cotted or matted fleeces. 
It is often a run-out Cotswold, and this grade is found mostly 
in coarse sections and in flocks that are run out. Common 
combing is the long, hairy wool, on the order of full-blood Cots- 
wold and Canada. 

" The grades fine, medium, quarter and common, apply to 
all wools. In unwashed wool there is httle or no difference in 
the price of combing and its corresponding grade of clothing, 
and the only advantage of taking out the combing is that it can 
be run a little lov,^er than clothing. For instance, medium 
clothing and combing sell at the same price, but as what is 
known as medium combing, is made almost a grade lower than 
medium clothing, we can sell more medium wool by making a 
medium combing ; the same holds true of quarter clothing and 
combing. In well-bred washed wools, the combing is worth 
more than the clothing, because it grades up better. Fine 
delaine is practically never taken out of unwashed wools ; and 
in fine washed, that is not well-bred and well-grown, there is 
rarely any to take out. Neither combing nor delaine are made 
out of dark, heavy, or poorly-grown wools, because the staple 
is generally weak, brashy, or not of sufficient elasticity." 

Sacking and Transpohtation.— If the clip is too small to 
justify the trouble, or has to be transported only a short dis- 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTON". 125 

tance to market, it may be hauled tolerably well on a hay-rack, 
if care is used in stowing the fleece. It is better, however, to 
sack it. Custom requires the buyer to do this on the farmer's 
premises, unless it is otherwise stipulated in the bargain ; in- 
deed, few farmers have the appUances necessary in sacking. 
For convenience in sacking, it is well to have the wool-room on 
the second floor ; and in the floor a circular trap-door, two feet 
in diameter. The sack is hung down through this, swinging 
clear of the floor beneath, and supported by its edges lapped 
under an iron hoop with an inside diameter the same as that of 
the trap door. After five or six fleeces have been thrown down 
into the sack, a man descends into it, arranges and treads on 
them, and so continues until the sack is filled. It istlien raised 
a little with a lever underneath, the mouth secured with 
clamps, the hoop removed, and the sack is then lowered to the 
floor and the mouth sewed up with twine. Cobs placed in the 
corners of the sack at the bottom furnish convenient hand- 
holds. The implements required are, a canvas-needle, two 
wool-boards, with a half -circle cut out of each (for use in case 
the sacks have to be suspended between joists or timbers, or a 
temporary frame-work), iron clamps with leather straps, and a 
hoop of half-inch, round bar-iron. 



CHAPTEE Xril. 

SUMMER MANAGEMENT. 

Sheep as Scavengers.— When old fields have become over- 
grown with briers and bushes, and the farmer desires to extir- 
pate them, sheep will do the work for him better than any 
other stock, but they will sometimes require assistance. If 
brier-clumps are very thick or very high, the flock cannot do 
the work unaided. The bushes must be mown and burned, or, 
if well filled at the bottom with dead leaves and grass, they 
can be fired in a dry time, and, if some pains are taken to beat 
down the green ones as the fire is burning, the whole clump can 
be consumed. The young shoots which sprout up in the ash- 
heap will be eaten off by the sheep much more thoroughly than 
those growing where there are no ashes. I have found it one of 
the best ways of renewing old moss-bound pastures, to fire them 



126 THE AMERICAl!^ MERi:N"a 

in a dry spell in the spring, when there is dry herbage enough 
on the ground to carry the flame ; then let the sheep have the 
range of them through the summer. They take a great deal of 
satisfaction in grazing, sleeping and stamping in the burnt dis- 
trict ; and, as above stated, they will take much more pains to 
crop off the sprouts here than they wiK in unburned territory. 
The ashes must give them a relish ; probably it is the greater 
percentage of potash they contaia, since sheep are noted for 
their fondness for and need of certain mineral ingredients in 
their feed. I have often observed their relish for tnese ash- 
fertilized plants ; they return to them again and again, crop- 
ping them down close to the ground, where they would scarcely 
taste them if growing in the open field. 

Every observing shepherd has noticed that sheep have their 
decided preferences in a rolling or hilly pasture, generally 
choosing a southern or eastern slope. Old farmers will tell you 
it is because the grass on these poorer, thinner exposures is 
shorter and sweeter. Probably this is one reason, but I cannot 
help thinking there is another. These southern slopes are 
nearly always wind-swept and sun-burned, and receive no stay- 
ing deposits of forest leaves ; hence the bed-rock is close to the 
surface, and frequently crops out in shelly ledges. This char- 
acter of the soil gives the grass a more mineral and earthy 
quality than is possessed by that growing on the north slopes ; 
for on these the soil is generally red clay, and strong with the 
humus or vegetable mold resulting from the rotted forest leaves 
of centuries. And the fondness of sheep for mineral ingredients 
in their feed was above alluded to. Hence they Knger on these 
naked, wind swept, southern slopes, nibbling the already scanty 
grass into the very ground, and neglecting the rich, rank feed 
on the northern slopes until they are fairly "starved to it," 
often to the wonder and annoyance of the shepherd. 

In general, sheep are so nice in their tastes and preferences 
that a pasture of any considerable extent, especially if it has a 
diversity of soils and exposures, is apt to become patchy if left 
entirely to the sheep. They are fond of knolls for stamping- 
grounds and sleeping-grounds, and will manure them to excess 
if they have their own way. 

There are various ways of regulating these matters. A port- 
able fence might do good service here ; I never tried it. A few 
young cattle with the sheep will give their attention to the 
north slopes and the rank pasture spots, while the sheep are 
grazing on the shorter feed. The sheep themselves will depas- 



TOR WOOL AND mutto:n'. 127 

ture these northern slopes in the fall when feed grows scarce ; 
but meantime much grass has grown up and died, so going to 
waste ; and the briers make their whole summer growth un- 
checked. 

I have found it an advantage to run a permanent fence be- 
tween the north and the south slopes, so compelling the sheep 
to divide their time between them. Still, they will hang along 
the fence for hours, sleeping by it, waiting and watching for a 
chance to get through. So, as a still better measure, I generally 
keep one of my flocks in ignorance of the existence of certain 
south slopes, by never turning them on them ; thus, when it 
comes their turn to occupy the contiguous north slopes, in the 
rapid rotation which it is my policy to keep up during the sum- 
mer, they graze there quiet and contented. 

I am always more careful to keep the large briers and shoots 
cut on the north slopes ; I salt the flocks there whenever prac- 
ticable ; and burn all brush and trash which may accumulate 
there. 

All burs of whatever description ought to be cut, dried and 
burned before they get ri^^e enough to part from the plant. 
Burdock and Thistle burs are worse than Cockle burs, if pos- 
sible ; they burst asmider and fill the wool with the most odious 
prickles and filaments, while the hard burs can be removed 
whole. No words of condemnation can be too severe for the 
farmer who allows burs to grow and ripen and get into the 
fleeces. 

Number of Sheep per Acre.— T. W. W. Sunman, of Spades, 
Ind., gives in the American Sheep-Breeder the following ex- 
perience: ''We took six head and put them on an acre of 
ground well, set in grass containing some white clover, well 
watered and good shade. They were turned in somewhere 
about the 12th or 15th of April, and remained there until along 
in October without any additional feeding, when they were 
turned to early sown rye and pastures saved for fall pasture. 
The acre furnished all the pasture the sheep required and to 
spare. In the spring of 1880 we turned eleven head of one and 
two-year-old ewes upon this same acre of ground, and they re- 
mained there from May to October, receiving no additional feed, 
and had plenty of grass all the time. 

"In 1881 we took in one-half acre more land, making in all 
one and one-half acre ; upon this we pastured seventeen head 
of one, two and four-year-old sheep, consisting of fifteen ewes 
and two rams. There was all the pasture the sheep wanted and 



128 THE AMEKICAN MERII^O 

to spare, and we believe would have furnished pasturage for 
four or six more, but this was a good year for pasture." 

But this is an exceptional case. When the shepherd, in going 
over his pastures, finds an occasional grass-tuft pulled up by the 
roots, he may know that he is over-pasturing. I have kept 
twenty-three sheep in good condition on three acres nearly all 
summer. 

Necessity of Water. — If the nights are cool and there is 
a heavy deposit of dew every night, sheep will do well for a long 
time without water, if they have constant access to salt, so that 
they do not eat too much at any one time. Otherwise they 
ought to have water within reach all the time. A flock of ewes 
with lambs at heel, ought always to have free access to water, 
summer and winter, without regard to weather. 

Working off the Culls.— With a flock of considerable size 
this is one of the most difficult operations connected with its 
management. There is no pro (it in grain-feeding old ewes or 
the long-legged, short-wooled, ungainly culls, into which a large 
flock, despite the most careful management, is continually 
"tailing out." Occasionally a batch of them can be sold to a 
neighbor who, having a fresh run, and wishing to keep only a 
small flock, can make something out of them when segregated 
into smaller bands ; but usually the only method practicable is 
to fatten them as quickly and cheaply as possible, and sell them 
for what they w^iU bring. 

An old, toothless or splintery-toothed crone of a ewe, is an 
extremely poor piece of property. Scarcely better is a younger 
one yielding a short, dry fleece, or a short, yolky (5ne which 
collects into hard, yellowish blocks, that almost require a ham- 
mer to soften them ; or with a bare belly and long, bare legs ; or 
with a tail set on low, and a weak, drooping neck. Of course, 
ew^es that are in service will produce lighter and thinner fleeces 
from year to year, and some deficiency in this regard may be 
tolerated in one of exceptional excellence otherwise ; but if 
these faults appear in a younger sheep, it ought not to be re- 
tained after the first shearing. It is a capital mistake to allow 
an inferior sheep to drift into the breeding flock, for then there 
will be two culls instead of one. 

Shippers commonly say they do not care how old a sheep is 
if it is only fat. But that condition which the ordinary farmer 
calls fat may be only "grass bloat," or it may be fat enough to 
make fairly good mutton for his own table ; but it wiU not en- 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 129 

dure the long, rough ride to New York, Chicago, or Baltimore. 
How to make an old ewe fat enough for the shipper, is a diifi- 
cult matter. 

I generally succeed best with culls by putting them by them- 
selves, young and old ; feeding them all the wheat brau and 
corn meal they will eat (their teeth will be too sore to crack 
corn), and giving them the benefit of the first fresh cropping 
from each pasture. As soon as they have been on it a week or 
ten days, I pass them on to another fresh one, and let the main 
flock follow them up, taking each field in turn after them as 
soon as they leave it. By having three or four fields and swing- 
ing the flocks rapidly through them in succession, I can keep 
the main flock very large— much larger than it ought to be 
in winter quarters — without detriment to it, and even keep 
them improving in flesh all the while for three or four months, 
until the culls are ready to turn ofl;, when the main flock can be 
broken up small again before frost sets in. 

Old ewes and other refuse sheep ought to be pushed rapidly 
while the grass is tender ; like an old " shelly " cow, they are a 
drug in the market at best, and in the fall they will be crowded 
to one side by wethers. 

The butcher or shipper ought never to be required to take 
culls for the sake of getting good, straight wethers. Some 
shippers will not handle the former at any price ; they will have 
to be disposed of to some " cheap John " dealer for a bagatelle • 
but for thoroughly good wethers the farmer can demand and 
obtain a good price. By all means keep the two classes separate. 

Teeth as an Indication of Age.— It is often the case that 
a man will develop into an excellent practical shepherd, but 
without a taste for keeping a record of his sheep by books 
marks, labels, etc. He will have frequent occasion to refer to 
the teeth as decisive of age. The milk or lamb teeth are easily 
distinguished from the grass teeth by their smallness and dark 
color. The old rule among farmers was that a "full mouth" 
(eight grass teeth), denoted a four-year-old, each year bringing 
forth two new teeth ; but in the modern improved breeds, un- 
less ill-fed, the grass teeth make their appearance about as fol- 
lows : The first pair at one year ; the second pair at eighteen 
months ; ths third pair at twenty-seven months ; the fourth and 
last pair at thirty-six months, or three years. 

A Leq of Mutton.— a fat young ewe affords the best rip© 
mutton ; next, a young wether. The sheep selected for mutton. 



130 THE AMERICAN MERIXO 

should be kept quiet and cool in a dark place, twenty-four 
hours, without anytliing to eat, but with all the water it will 
drink ; above all things it should not be worried and heated. 
The neck being laid across a block, may be severed at a blow 
with an axe, and the flow of blood should be made as complete 
as possible by the butcher seizing a hind-leg and gently pulling 
and pushing with a foot on the carcass. The disemboweling 
and skinning should be quickly dispatched. Let the sheep be 
hung up, rippedj and the bowels removed ; then the skinning 
can be performed afterward. Immediately after the sheep is 
hung up, if a hole is made between the hind-legs and the 
abdomen filled up with very cold water, it will assist in pre- 
venting the ' ' sheepy " taste. 

When Daniel Webster said he learned in England the secret 
of good mutton, namely, that it improves with age, he must 
have meant that it grows better each day after it is butchered. 
The longer it can be kept the better, within decent limits. If 
the farmer wishes to avoid surfeiting his family on mutton, let 
him convert a part of it — the legs preferably — into smoked 
' ' mutton hams " or corned mutton ; then hang two or three 
good roasts down a deep well, and proceed with moderation in 
all things. The advice of the old English " quarter-of -mutton 
chant " to the cook is : " Let her boil the leg and roast the loin, 
and make a pudding of the suet," and the advice is sound. The 
roasted loin is always a juicy piece ; but the shoulder-blade, 
gently browned, with onion sauce or baked tomatoes, runs it 
close in the favor of gourmets, who wiU also generally be found 
to prefer a neck chop to one from the ribs, since in a coarse- 
grained sheep oil has a tendency to gather there. 

Charcoal or vinegar will remove what the Scotch call the 
*' braxy flavor," if it exists, though it should not be noticeable 
after the above precautions in butchering have been taken. The 
old English fashion of cooking before an open wood fire, as 
directed by Dean Swift, was very good ; but an intelligent cook 
can prepare just as choice a roast in a modern American stove- 
oven. If the sheep was young the piece may be put into the 
oven at once ; otherwise it ought to be macerated by boihng 
awhile, with the amount of water so gauged that when tender, 
it will be " done dry." Then let it be put into the oven, with 
this remnant of juice, and nicely browned; and the gravy 
should be thickened with flour and water previously stirred 
together without lumps, and poured into the pan about ten 
minutes before it is taken out of the oven. 



roil AVOOL AXD MUTTOIs^. 131 

Maggots.— Mr. E. J. Hiatt, the editor of TJie Shepherds' Na- 
tional Jounial, and himself a shepherd of long experience and 
excellent judgment, gives the following : 

' ' Sassafras oil and alcohol, one-fifth of the former and f om*- 
fif ths of the latter, mixed, will destroy maggots on short notice ; 
this is a safe and sure remedy and is particularly valuable to 
destroy maggots when they are located where it is diincult to 
get at them. They may be destroyed without shearing off the 
wool. 

"Turpentine has been used, but this is injurious to some 
sheep and cannot be used with safety when the sheep are 
allowed to run in the rain, and it is also unsafe in cases where 
the sheep is fevered and reduced in strength from being un- 
noticed or neglected, until its life was in great danger. Water 
should not be used as it only increases the danger of a second 
attack. There is much less danger of trouble with maggots 
when sheep are kept from the rain.. 

"A liquid is sometimes used, which is made by boiling or 
stewing tlie bark or stalks of the Elder. This is more trouble- 
some, but could be used in the absence of something better." 

I had come to the same conclusion as Mr. Hiatt respecting the 
use of turpentine, also benzine — both being too severe on the 
sheep in most cases. I salt twice a week until shearing-time, 
and carry to a field with me, besides the salt, the crook, some tar, 
and a pair of shears. If a sl^eep is seen to stamp and twitch its 
tail, catch it on the spot. When your suspicions are found to 
be correct, shear off close all the wool infested by the vermin, 
clean them off and apply tar thoroughly. If they have estab- 
lished any considerable footing, scrutinize with the utmost 
thoroughness the wool adjacent, for colonies of them will 
migrate around about and begin operations afresh. 

Ticks. — It is an impeachment of the shepherd's care and 
vigilance to have these abominable pests on his sheep, at least 
for any length of time, since -they are liable to get into any 
flock through purchase. In the early summer is the time above 
all others in the year to give them the slip. After shearing 
they will disappear in two or three weeks from the shorn sheep, 
and part of those on the ewes will take refuge on the lambs. 
The grown sheep will need no more attention if they are kept in 
good growing condition through the summer, but unless the 
lambs are treated in some way, the vermin will survive through 
the summer, some will return to thp ewes before weaning-time, 
and the remainder will be ready to begin their deadly work- 



132 THE AMERICAN MEEIKO 

through the winter, as they seldom do much injury in summer. 
Ticks never flourish on fat sheep. Indeed, this rule holds 
good in reference to nearly all ovine parasites ; but it is almost 
an impossibility to get lambs in good condition when infested 
with ticks. It is not advisable to dip them in cold weather, but 
in summer it may be done with safety and benefit. Some 
shepherds recommend Eady's Sheep Dip, others carbohc acid, 
etc.; I have tried kerosene, snuff, sulphur (rubbed into the 
wool), and tobacco water and a solution of arsenic (as a dip). I 
think, all things considered, the tobacco-water is best, if the 
material is readily obtainable, though if applied strong it has a 
tendency to color the wool and make it harsh. 

Twelve or fiiteen pounds of refuse tobacco and chopped 
stems, or six pounds of white arsenic, will make a solution 
sufficiently strong for one hundred lambs ; though with either 
one, a little of it should be tried on a few ticks before the dip- 
ping begins. A few gallons of water will suffice for the boiling, 
then the decoction may be diluted with about a barrel of cold 
water. The keeper of Merinos ought not to be troubled with 
ticks sufficiently (they are more troublesome on the British 
breeds) to justify the expense of making special dipping appa- 
ratus. Two wash-tubs or large iron kettles will answer the 
purpose. 

A person whose hands have no abrasions of the skin need not 
fear to plunge them freely into either the tobacco or arsenic de- 
coction. One band should grasp the lamb's mouth and nostrils 
(to prevent it from getting the liquid into them), the othei* the 
fore-legs, while an assistant holds the hind-legs. The lamb 
should be lowered, back down, into the liquid and held there 
until it thoroughly pervades the wool nearly up to the eyes and 
the roots of the ears. Then let it be placed on its feet in the 
other tub, and the wool squeezed out. Unless this dipping is 
very thoroughly performed, some of the eggs of the ticks will 
escape, and in two weeks the operation must be repeated. 

In cold weather, as above remarked, dipping is not advisable ; 
but the ticks may be so held in check by means of sulphur mixed 
in the salt that they will work the lambs little or no injury until 
shearing-time comes. Indeed, some very good practical shep- 
herds of my acquaintance assert that they destroy or prevent 
ticks altogether by the use of sulphur, putting three pounds of 
sulphur to five of salt, and giving about a handful of the com- 
pound twice a week to forty or fifty sheep in their feed. In the 
summer they are not molested by them, and in the fall, if any 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 133 

are discoverable, they renew the sulphur. When feeding sul- 
phur, I am careful to keep lambs housed from storms. 

My experience with sulphur has been so satisfactory that I 
should never bother with kerosene, snuff, mercurial ointment, 
or any other substance to be rubbed into the wool. 

Salting. — I take it for granted that every flock-master who 
peruses these pages never denies his sheep salt, unless it may 
be from occasional negligence. By keeping it in a covered 
trough and taking account of the quantity consumed during a 
series of weeks in early summer, I ascertained that an average 
sheep requires about one-eighth pint per week. During a pro- 
tracted drouth, or late in autumn, when the grass has become 
dry, sheep consume less salt than in the spring when the grass 
is washy. Strong, healthy sheep, well cared for otherwise, may 
flourish for an indefinite period without any salt ; but every 
flock-master of extended experience, who has turned that ex- 
perience to account, is well satisfied that salt is very beneficial 
to sheep, and that the money it costs is well expended in ward- 
ing off disease. 

In a journey through New Mexico several years ago, I con- 
versed with a resident wool-grower, Mr. Anton Lippart, who 
stated a remarkable fact in his experience. One winter during 
a severe and protracted drouth, he lost about twelve hundred 
sheep, while a neighbor similarly situated lost less than a score. 
His neighbor saved his sheep with salt and water ! The liberal 
supply of salt so toned up and stimulated the sheep, that they 
consumed the coarsest feed and turned everything to account. 

It is wasteful to salt sheep on the ground, even in the cleanest 
places, but this system has its compensating advantages m that 
it compels the flock-master to see his sheep once a week, which 
he might otherwise neglect to do. By scattering the salt in a 
circle of handfuls, he can count and inspect every member of a 
large flock. I never found it worth while to provide a covered 
trough, except in one case, and that was as a receptacle for salt 
and copperas as a preventive of Paper-skin in lambs. (See 
Chapter on Diseases). The salt-trough in the pasture serves 
another useful purpose in accustoming lambs to eat from a 
trough as a preparation for weaning. 

The Dust Bath.— Some writers and practical men recom- 
mend tar, smeared in the salt-trough, and thence attaching it- 
self to the animals' noses, as a repellant of the gad-fly and a 
preventive of the deposition of its eggs. In a close-fenced and 



134 THE AMERICAIS^ MERIXO 

cleared pasture, with no shade, except that beside the fence, tar, 
or whale oil, may be rubbed on their noses with good effect. I 
attach great importance to shade and dust. If on the top of 
some commanding hill or knoll, there is a clump of trees under 
which the breeze draws cool and refreshing, here the sheep will 
always be found congregated in the heat of the day, and here 
each one will wear out, by stamping, a little circular depression 
for himself in which, with evident satisfaction, he will lie down 
and get up many times a day, paw, turn round, and otherwise 
raise a dust into which to thrust his nose. He will lie for an 
hour or more with his nose close pressed against the ground, 
inhaling the dust. It is an instinct ; he seeks in this way to 
escLipe his enemy. 

The gad-fly is more apt to trouble lambs and tegs than older 
sheep, and I deem it a matter of importance to provide for 
these, if possible, an enclosed building as a refuge during the 
heat of summer. Even a shed with only one side, if it is some- 
what dark and cool, is a better protection against the fly than 
the open field or a thin coppice. 

Weaning Lambs. — If they are thriving as well as they ought, 
lambs need not run with the ewes above four months. They 
will be more quiet if left in the field they are accustomed to, 
with the ewes removed out of sight and hearing. 

If there are shade and water in the field which they know 
where to find, they will help themselves. If not, they ought to 
be driven to water every day ; and it is a good plan to fetch 
them to the stable before the sun gets very hot, to prevent them 
frotn rambling aimlessly about the field, panting in the sun- 
shine, or crowding into the fence-corners. 

The lambs should have a fresh rowen or an upland pasture, if 
one is available, well stocked with June grass, Red-top, or some 
other short, tender, nutritious grass. There should be strips of 
forest in it, with shady knolls for stamping-grounds, where 
they may find an abundance of the dust which is so essential to 
their health during the dog days. An old ewe should be left 
with them for a flock-leader. If they are accustomed during 
the summer to a stationary salt-trough, the task of teaching 
them to eat feed will be reduced to a trifle, as they will approach 
the troughs freely. A mere dusting of salt should be sprinkled 
on their feed for a few days (being withheld from them other- 
wise) ; after that it may be left in quantity in the trough appro- 
priated to it, or sprinkled on a clean sod. It is of the highest 
importance that lambs and yeai'lings should have daily access 



FOR WOOL AN"D JIUTTON". 135 

to salt, summer and winter, at least in a humid climate. I will 
give a brief description of my mode of making a salt-trough. 
For the supports take two equal pieces of one-and-a-half-inch 
plank, fifteen inches wide, and saw notches in the top deep 
enough to receive the trough. Make the trough V-shaped, six- 
teen feet long, of boards six inches wide, using for end-boards 
the pieces sawed out of the plank. Let the supports be about 
eighteen inches long, and nail to them, one on each side of the 
trough, upright standards. Across these standards at the top 
nail two V-shaped pieces to support the roof, which is made 
like the trough and turned bottom up. The standards must be 
high enough to allow the sheep to insert their heads freely be- 
tween the roof and trough, which requires a space of about 
nine inches. 

For a safe, nutritious, healthy, universally available and 
everywhere procurable feed for weaned lambs, there is nothing 
which is comparable to wheat bran, I find it profitable to en- 
rich it by the addition of a little shorts or oil-cake meal. In 
default of this, let a small proportion of oats be introduced into 
the ration when the frost falls, and some corn when the snow 
flies. Buckwheat bran is too coarse and rough for lambs. 

Tagging Lambs. — Merino lambs four months old should 
have wool of considerable length, and in the heat of midsum- 
mer this renders them liable to the invasion of those detestable 
vermin, the maggots. Out of a flock of one hundred and thirty 
lambs, I have lost over twenty in less than two weeks from this 
source alone. Of late years I have invariably tagged at wean- 
ing all the ewe-lambs, and as many wethers as showed signs of 
fouling about the pizzle. In very hot, muggy weather sheep 
will sometimes become fly-blown anywhere about the fleece if 
there is the least fetor attaching to the animal, around the 
hoofs, the head, the wrinkles, or the natural orifices of the 
body. The most rigid cleanliness must be maintained to carry 
lambs through the dog-days in bad years. Four hours' work in 
tagging may save ten times that amount of the most odious 
drudgery the shepherd has— ^fighting the maggots. 

Summer Housing and Feeding. — Some very good shepherds, 
indeed a great majority of the keepers of stud-flocks, give their 
sheep a little hay all summer. It is only a very little, and that 
of very sweet hay. A still smaller number give lambs and 
choice rams a daily ration of grain, generally consisting of 
wheat bran and oats mixed in about equal portions. It is 



136 THE AMEEICAK MERIKO 

claimed that this dry feeding in summer steadies the animal's 
appetite, acts as a corrective of acidity and flatulency, a pre- 
ventive of colic and scours, and a general tonic to the system ; 
this more especialh^ when the weather is exceptionally wet and 
the grass slushy. To the breeders of high-priced standard sheep 
there is undoubtedly much force in this argument ; they find 
profit in the course above indicated ; and, conducted within the 
careful, reasonable limits implied in the forei^oing statement, it 
affords no just ground for the odious charge of pampering. 

Neither have I any quarrel with the veteran shepherd who 
chooses to house his flock every day in the year, and who would 
suffer a load of hay to take a shower rather than a dozen favor- 
ite sheep. It would argue the height of folly to assume that he 
does not know his business, and that this policy is necessarily 
incompatible with common honesty. Our countrymen who 
breed fine stock may be trusted to discover ultimately those 
methods which will develop that stock to the acme of symmetry 
and beauty. And it cannot be denied that a Merino systematic- 
ally housed and blanketed is much more pleasing to the view 
than one which exposure has rendered rough and shaggy. The 
soft, moist feel of the exterior, devoid of clots or indurations ; 
the rich, dull luster of orange or gold revealed in the deep clefts 
between the blocks when opened ; the fibers glistening, when 
held up separate, with a pellucid, semiliquid unguent — these 
are eminently satisfactory to the admirer of fine sheep. A 
fleece which has baen housed for some time and is then exposed 
to the rains, bleaches out dirty-white, yellowish, yellow-gray, 
brown, or remains black, according to the consistence of the 
yolk ; the latter has its stratifications destroyed and is washed 
down into the wool and into disfiguring masses like the drift 
along a stream, etc. A frost on a fleece is considered even more 
injurious to its appearance than a rain. I appreciate the artistic 
perception wliich delights in the full and fat exterior ; the soft, 
flannel-like fleece, which yet offers a firm and thick handful 
where grasped ; the eyes closely walled about with wool ; the 
silken white nose and ears ; the comfortable, buttoned-up chin 
and cheeks — the perfect presentment of hearty and well-fed 
opulence. 

All these things may be fair and honest, they may be matters 
of legitimate pride and art. Everything depends on the master's 
motive in this summer feeding and housing. 

These practices will be found only in stud or standard flocks. 
And when it becomes necessary for th® farmer to bring sheep 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTO^nT. 137 

down from the high level of the stud-flock to the niveau of the 
plain, out-door, wool-bearing flock, he will find — such has been 
my experience — that hardly any amount of summer-housing 
will unfit the sheep for a gradual, progressive and judicious 
initiation into the ways of a working flock, but that irreparable 
mischief may be wrought by high feeding. 

My father once bought a ram for four hundred dollars, which 
soon developed goitre and partial impotency, and died when he 
should have been in his prime. It was a mystery to him at the 
time, but subsequent investigation revealed that lie had been 
grossly pampered. 

I paid a high rent for a ram one year, and out of seventy-five 
ewes served by him, a great part came in heat a second time, 
and less than forty bore lambs of his getting. He was a large 
and powerful two-year-old, but in less than a year he died sud- 
denly and mysteriously. He had undoubtedly been over-fed, 
but not intentionally, as his owner made honorable restitution. 

Over-feeding and excessive fatness are the cause of some 
barrenness among Merino ewes, and, as indicated in a previous 
chapter, of weakness, under-size and lack of constitution in 
lambs. But the unscrupulous men who practice pampering on 
their show-sheep and their sale-sheep are well aware of this 
fact, and do not allow themselves to be losers from their dis- 
reputable doings. A friend informs me that, during a visit to 
the farm of a noted breeder in Vermont, after looking long and 
with undisguised admiration at the various flocks paraded for 
his inspection, he inquired in some surprise where his breeding 
flock was. He was told that they were " not in good condition 
to be seen," but, on insisting somewhat, he was conducted to a 
stony, rugged hill-pasture, where they found the ewes literally 
"roughing it "—a shaggy-looking lot, but rosy-skinned and 
hardy, the very picture of health and thrift ! 

The Merino is tolerant of much abuse, and when well-fed it 
will submit to the most rigid imprisonment for a long time with 
impunity and with apparent thrift. Indeed, for animals fat- 
tening for the shambles, destined to be butchered in a few 
months, this confinement is probably conducive to the highest 
profit ; but stock sheep subjected to it will go to pieces in the 
end. 

Exercise, labor, work, is the law of all being ; and a violation 
of it will inexorably entail the penalty at last. 



138 THE AMERICAN MERIXO 

CHAPTER XIV. 
FROM GRASS TO HAY. 

Sheep in Corn. — In seasons when there is not much wind 
and the corn stands up well, it is frequently advisable to turn 
flocks of young sheep into the standing corn a week or two be- 
fore cutting it begins. There are many leaves on the lower por- 
tion of the stalks which are never harvested, besides weeds 
which impede the labor of cutting, all of which sheep will con- 
sume for a change. It is best to alternate the flocks, shifting 
them every few days. To one not accustomed to the experience, 
it is surprising to see how clean and tidy a flock will clear up a 
corn-field — what an immense amount of trash they will con- 
sume. But it is necessary to be on the lookout for the equi- 
noctial storms. I once had a flock caught in a two-days' rain, 
and they bogged down to the middle in the plowed ground, so 
that we had to carry some out a-shoulder. 

In Orchards. — Sheep are better scavengers in a bearing 
orchard than hogs, notwithstanding they will bark small trees. 
Even if ringed, hogs will exterminate most grasses in a small 
lot, but orchard grass will flourish under the trees and under 
the hardest gnawing of the sheep. Besides that, sheep will eat 
up all the windfalls, no matter how small, bitter, astringent or 
rotten, with a more unquestioning appetite than swine ; hence 
they protect the trees more effectually against insect enemies. 
It is mainly old suckling ewes that damage the trees, and these 
only in the spring when herbage is scanty. They may be pre- 
vented from gnawing the bark by an application of coal tar, 
kerosene, tar, or a wash prepared by mixing on3 quart of soft 
soap, one quart of lime, one quart of pine tar with three gal- 
lons of sheep, cow or hen manure, stirring in a sufficient quan- 
tity of water to make it about the same consistency as ordinary 
whitewash. Apply to the body of the trees with a whitewash 
-brush, splint broom, or with the hand well protected with a 
heavy cloth mitten. This wash will protect the trees against 
injury from sheep, except the rams' horns, and is also conducive 
to the growth and health of the trees. It is valuable in pre- 
venting the damages so frequently done by insects, worms, 
etc.; for this purpose apply as near the roots as possible, and as 
often as it is washed off by the rain from the body of the tree. 



FOR WOOL AliTD MUTTON:. 139 

But most farmers in the busy season will forget to renew the 
application, and at best it will not prevent damage by the rams' 
horns. Hence I have found the best practical protection to be 
stakes ; locust stakes will last from six to ten years or more. 

A few sheep may be kept in an orchard which does not afford 
enough herbage for their support ; and, if fed on pumpkins, 
turnip-tops, apple pomace, salt-hay, brewers' grains, sweet-corn 
fodder, or fodder-corn, they will rid the orchard of every weed, 
down to yellow dock, burdock, elder, poke, and even stunt the 
thistles if salt is thrown around them. But they incur some 
risks ; I once had a valuable ewe choked by a clingstone peach. 

Soiling Sheep. — Green feed soon becomes stale in a rack ; it 
is necessary to feed sheep ** little and often." With the mutton- 
breeds what may be called out-door soiling, or hurdle-feeding 
on roots, rape, mustard, etc., is often found profitable ; but it 
will seldom repay the labor to soil Merino sheep in the ordinary 
meaning of the term, except as above suggested, in an orchard 
or some small lot which it is desired to free from weeds and 
briers. 

Maintaining an even Condition.— I wish to impress strongly 
upon the mind of the inexperienced flock-master the necessity 
of keeping up an even, uniform condition, a progressive growth 
in his flocks, throughout the year. Not only do the horse and 
steer give quicker note of a falling-off (by their hair beginning 
to stand out straight and other indications), than the sheep 
whose carcass is deeply hidden from the master's eyes in a 
voluminous fleece ; but the horse and the steer, by reason of 
their stronger muscular and vascular systems, will also more 
easily recover from a temporary decline. 

After the fairs are all over and the show-sheep turned out, 
the ribbons laid away as trophies, the busy farmer— busiest now 
of all times of the year— is apt to neglect his flocks, and they 
enter upon the down-grade. But all the while he is driving his 
fall work, or perhaps chatting at the corner-store, there is a 
secret recorder that is every day, like the priest behind the wall 
in the Inquisition, laying up secret evidence against him, jot- 
ting down its own note and comment, which the expert may 
open and read. 

What is this mysterious 'spy ? It is the fiber of the wool. Let 
the sheep be neglected a few weeks in the late autumn and lose 
condition, let it fall sick, let it even be violently chased by dogs 
for twenty minutes, and the fiber will be " jointed," there will 



140 THE AMERIGAK MERIITO 

be a weak place in it which will cause it to break in the cards 
or the loom. The reader raay puff out his cheeks at this as a 
mere bit of sentiment ; but there is a case on record where a 
Boston expert told the much-wondering farmer that he had 
moved his flock from a wooded to a prairie region, and informed 
him in what month he did it — all from the simple evidence 
furnished by the fleeces. 

Eternal vigilance is the price of good wool. The perfect 
Merino fiber of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia -true 
and sound, of a uniform diameter throughout its whole extent 
— admirably typifies the ceaseless care and the untiring industry 
of the true shepherd ; while the staple of Australia, thin at one 
end, thick at the other, with perhaps one or more attenuations 
between, fitly represents a slipshod, " feast-and-f amine " system 
of husbandry. 

Fall Care. — All the flocks, especially the lambs and the 
breeding ewes, should be vigilantly watched at this time of the 
year. As soon as heavy frosts begin to fall the sheep ought to 
be housed at night, and not turned out in the morning until 
the frost disapjjears, as they will frequently wander around an 
hour or more, doing themselves no good and the pasture much 
damage. Wherever they touch a frosty clover-leaf or other 
tender herbage, it is ruined, whereas if it had been allowed to 
thaw out untouched, it would have been uninjured. I never 
lost any sheep from frozen clover, but it will physic young 
sheep and put them in ill condition to enter winter quarters. 

If the autumn has not been too rainy, second-growth clover, 
cut and cured, will be excellent feed to shade off on from grass 
to hay — for the ewes ought to have a little dry feed in their 
mangers while waiting in the morning for the frost to melt. 
But in a wet season, clover rowen is not fit for hay ; it will 
*' slobber" anything except hogs. I have had sheep killed by 
it. The farmer can easily tell whether it will be safe to harvest 
it by testing a horse with it while green. 

Very rank clover, grown on river bottoms and cut while 
green, will sometimes cause ewes to * ' slink " their lambs ; even 
the first cutting has done this, to say nothing of the second ; at 
least, such has been my experience. Yet I should not hesitate 
to give upland clover to pregnant ewes without stint. 

Fall Feed for Laimbs. — One year my pastures were much 
curtailed by a severe drought, and I was somewhat puzzled how 
to provide for my lambs a supply of that succulent herbage 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOJ^^. 141 

which is so necessary to their thrift. The cossets running 
about the house had access to a turnip-patch of two or three 
acres, and, observing them cropping the tops, I conceived the 
idea of turning the entire flock into the patch for a hmited time 
each day. The x^lan worked admirably ; in course of time the 
lambs had completely stripped off the tops, thus saving me the 
most onerous part of the labor of harvesting turnips, and they 
had only here and there taken a mouthful from a turnip, not 
impairing them in the least for use the following spring. It 
supplemented the fall feed admirably, and carried the lambs 
into winter quarters in excellent condition. A slight tendency 
to scours developed itself after the tops were severely frosted, 
but it was easily corrected by lessening their daily run on the 
turnips and increasing the ration of hay and bran. 

Pumpkins are good feed for lambs in autumn (see Chapter 
on Paperskin). They will eat them tolerably well if broken up 
on a very clean and close sward ; but it is better to provide flat- 
bottomed troughs with compartments, each being large enough 
to receive the half of a pumpkin split in such fashion as to lie 
flat, with the inside uppermost. 

Acorns are a valuable resource for grown sheep, but I have 
not had favorable results when I allowed lambs to run freely 
in an oak forest. The acorns have almost invariably been pro- 
ductive of scours. 

One thing is certain — lambs must be grained liberally, or else 
they must have a very choice reserve of green feed to wind up 
the grazing season on, or they will lose gTound and go into 
■winter quarters on the down grade. I feed my lambs more 
grain in November than in January. In January they are well 
established in their winter habits and have an abundance of the 
best and sweetest hay ; whereas in November they are in a 
transition condition, gathering up under protest the leavings of 
the summer grass which the frost has weakened. I mix one 
part oats to two of bran, and of this I give about a bushel and 
a half a day to one hundred head. 

At the End of the Season. — Sometimes an inch or two of 
snow will fall on the grass before it is time to bring the flocks 
into winter quarters, and lie a few days ; or it may be desirable 
for other reasons to keep the sheep out a little beyond such 
time as the pasturage, unaided, would keep them in good flesh. 
1 have found it advantageous under these circumstances to 
carry out, say a half bushel of shelled corn to the hundred 
grown sheep, and sow it broadcast on a short, clean sod. This 



142 THE AMEEICAN MEEIITO 

enables all to share equally. On the north hillsides grass nearly 
always grows ranker than elsewhere, and the sheep will pass 
by these strong-growing patches all summer. Late in the fall 
they can be made, with the help of a small ration of corn, to 
depasture them down and so leave the pasture uniform. These 
tussocks would otherwise afford a winter harbor for ground 
mice. Sometimes I have found it advantageous to keep a few 
young cattle with a flock ; they will graze these north hillsides, 
while the sheep will keep on the south slopes. 



CHAPTER XV. 
SELECTION AND CARE OF RAMS. 

Constitution. — " A steep rump and a crooked leg,", is one of 
the shepherd's catch-words. A crooked leg generally means 
also a " cat-ham," and a cat-ham is usually a sign of weakness. 
Still, however objectionable these points may be, they are not 
to be compared with flat nostrils (almost invariably accom- 
panied by catarrh aud a disgusting accumulation of mucus in 
the nares) ; weak pasterns, causing the animal to walk some- 
what flat-footed, plantigrade, or bear-fashion ; a straight, thin, 
ewe-nose ; and a fine ewe-fleece — all of which denote a poor 
constitution. 

The test of supreme importance is the bright, rosy skin. A 
ram may have excrescences ; yet if he has this, he possesses 
vigor. Mr. G. B. Quinn's "Red Legs " had a shambling anatomy, 
thin shoulders, and steep rump ; yet he had great power. Mr. 
C. C. Smith's "Silver Horn" was excessively wrinkly, as the 
annexed measurements show ; still he had sufficient vigor. 

" Silver Horn," Hve weight 138^ /s pounds. 

Length 8 feet 7 inches. 

Total length (including wrinkles) 9 "5 " 

Through shoulders 7"-/i2 ' ' 

Through hips „_ 9Vi2 " 

Height i.-_ 2 " 2 

Length of neck IIV4 " 

Girth (about the heart) 3 " 1/2 " 

Width of loin 6 

Width of escutcheon 7 " 

Length of nose 8V2 " 

Length of nose not wooled IVs " 

Depth of flank wrinkle GVe " 

Escutcheon wrinkle overlaps 2Vi2 " 



FOR WOOIi A^D MUTTOJSr. 




144 THE AMERICAN MERIiTO 

Points of a Good Ram. — Let him have clean, short, shining 
hoofs, which never require the toe-clippers ; a round barrel ; 
a good diameter through the hams and shoulders ; a neck well 
set on, thick, powerful, devoid of the feeble Saxon droop just 
in front of the shoulders ; a nose held nearly i)erpendicular, 
arched, reddish, covered with fine corrugations, and in mature 
age, having two deep channels running from the inner corners 
of the eyes slanting down athwart the face ; nostrils round and 
well-opened ; eyes large and brilliant ; horns, when grown, 
making one turn and a half, close to the head, spanning clear 
across the forehead, deep, with a sharp, cutting edge under- 
neath, and with clean, clear-grained wrinkles, thickly set to- 
gether. Let his ears be hot, so that blood will flow freely from 
a cut. A cold-eared, cold-blooded animal is of no value. Such 
a sheep does not possess sufficient animal heat to kee^D his yolk 
liquescent and diffused to the extremities of the fibers. The 
scrotum should be well covered, the wool joining on to the 
belly ; the spermatic cords thick and large, and the investing 
skin of a bright, ruddy color. A long, pendulous scrotum with 
small cords betokens a weak constitution. I like to see the neck 
swelling into voluminous folds, especially a liberal apron ; the 
body plain ; the stifle and ham slashed with two or three ob- 
liquely transverse wrinkles free from gare. Bat best of all is a 
broad, horseshoe-shaped escutcheon, a tail nearly as wide as a 
man's two hands, with the skin at the sides folded and tucked 
under, which indicates, in my opinion, generous breeding and 
generous blood. The Hiatt Bro.'sram, " Ohio," had the finest 
escutcheon I ever saw on any sheep. 

As to fleece, so far as my observation goes, the more vigorous 
the ram, generally, the whiter the wool he produces. I know 
full well the beauty of those fleeces which, as the animal's body 
bends a little to one side, reveal deep rifts of a rich reddish- 
yellow, like the color of California gold ; but they are not so 
hardy generally- 

A ram should be sought that has a short and broad head, and 
powerful jaws, the lower one spread well apart. Between the 
lower jaws and under the tongue are the salivary glands, and if 
the jaws are well spread these glands will be large and afford a 
good supply of saliva, a very important ingredient in digestion. 
When the head is long and the jaws lacking in width, these 
glands will be small and not yield sufficient to carry on diges- 
tion with a force always assuring the animal's good condition, 

Opposites to be Mated. — Another important point is to se- 



FOR WOOL AJs"!) MUTTON". 



145 



lect none but those that appear full of life, wide awake, with 
eyes not partly closed, but wide open. An active temperament 
is always indicated by bright, sparkling eyes and the two set 
well apart. A ram with the right form and temperament when 
crossed with ewes unlike himself, will give an increase, carry- 




ing heavier fleeces than sire or dam. In chemistry it requires 
two distinct properties to produce the third ; it takes two dis- 
tinct gases to make a drop of water, and two opposite winds to 
blow the misty vapor together to form rain drops ; and in gen- 
eration two opposites are required to produce strong and healthy 
issue. It looks as though the power that governs the universe 



14(5 THE AMEEICAN MEKIXO 

had a great aversion to perfect sameness, for there are no two 
things in nature exactly alike ; and few animals of the same 
family and line of breeding ai-e so near alike as not to be easily 
distinguished one from the other. And because this is so, it is 
hard to tell if ever a point could be reached beyond which no 
improvement could be made. 

The question of in-and-in breeding often comes up for discus- 
sion among the best breeders of all kinds of stock. It is fully 
settled to be safe, to a certain degree, but in all such experi- 
ments as these, a full knowledge of the traits and qualities pe- 
culiar to both lines of ancestry must be possessed by the breeder, 
or serious mistakes will be made. In sheep breeding it rarely 
occurs that any chance need be taken in this particular. Near 
relatives may be coupled with better results when there is a 
sufficient distance existing between, than can those that are too 
much alike, when there is no relationship existing. 

Correlation of Wool and Yolk. — It is a common remark 
of the keepers of stud-flocks, that the rams which scour the 
most wool shear the heaviest fleeces. This may be set down as 
the major premise in a favorite line of argument, while the 
minor premise would be, that the heaviest fleece is what the 
wool-grower wants. Another common argument is (to use a 
homely comparison), that yolk is the peculiar sustaining or 
nourishing element which creates wool, very much as " mother" 
is the sustainer and nourisher of vinegar. (I shall, in another 
place, refer more at length to this theory). 

The essential fallacy of this theory consists in ignoring, or 
overlooking, the fact that the keeper of the stud-flock seeks one 
object and the wool-grower another. In the wool-flock a ram 
is desired in which the oil-follicles are so developed, correla- 
tively, as to insure the highest possible development of the wool- 
follicles — but no higher. In the stud-flock a ram is required in 
\^ hich there is the highest possible activity of the oil-foUicles. 
because it it is his function to mate with the native, say, of 
New Mexico, in which there is no development of the oil- 
follicles at all. The farmer should carefully observe this dis- 
tinction. 

Let me illustrate : The famous " Patrick Henry." owned by L. 
P. Clark, of Vermont, sheared thirty-seven pounds and scoured 
nine pounds and ten ounces ; that is, his fleece lost in the 
scouring-tub seventy-four per cent. A ram shorn at Sedalia, 
Mo., clipped twenty-eight pounds and four ounces, and his 
fleece, scoured by Walter Brown & Co., of Boston, cleansed 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 147 

seven pounds and fourteen ounces, a loss of seveni y-one and 
sixty-nine hundredths per cent. Another one sheared twenty- 
eight pounds and fourteen ounces ; scoured seven pounds and 
fifteen and one-half ounces, a shrinkage of seventy-two and 
forty hundredths per cent. Now take other rams, shearing a 
medium-weight fleece, and we find the shrinkage is not so great 
in percentage. For instance, one shearing twelve pounds and 
six ounces, in the same lot, showed a percentage of loss of only 
sixty-one and thirty-six hundredths. Others ran along in the 
same vicinity. The point I wish to make and to emphasize is, 
that the heaviest shearers are the heaviest losers. It is a com- 
mon saying and a truthful one, that it is the extra five bushels 
of wheat per acre which makes the profit. This principle will 
not apply to the excessively yolky fleeces, but rather that other 
one : " The last straw breaks the camel's back." Tiie great Ver- 
mont ram had to produce eight pounds and twelve ounces of 
yolk to beat his Missouri competitor one pound and twelve 
ounces in wool. Such an animal might be, and doubtless was, 
highly valuable for stud-flock purposes ; but he would not have 
to the ordinary wool-grower (unless his ewes were exceptionally 
dry-topped), an increased value at all commensurate with the 
increased percentage of yolk in his fleece. Of course, this cele- 
brated ram possessed a peculiar aptitude for the secretion of 
yolk (though this can be greatly augmented in any Merino by 
very rich, copious feeding) ; but it is only a truism to assert that 
yolk is valueless, except in so far as it involves the production 
of wool. And surely no one could be found to believe that the 
bushels of rich feed required to produce eight pounds and twelve 
ounces of yolk, were not worth more than one pound and twelve 
ounces gain in wool. I do not deny that such a ram is a prize 
in a stud-flock, but it is only because the monstrous extreme of 
yolkiness in Vermont is matched against the monstrous extreme 
of dryness in New Mexico. 

Management in Summer.— It is best to have a thoroughly 
experienced workman to shear the rams, and pay him his price, 
even if it is a dollar a head. There are very few shearers who 
will give proper attention to shearing closely around the horns. 
Oftentimes quack shearers will only half shear, in their hurry, 
because of the inconvenience and labor of getting behind and 
around the horns. It is only with some effort on the part of 
the shearer at this point, that the job is completed in a workman- 
like manner. There are rams that need their horns " slabbed." 
That is, their horns grow so near their heads, as they circle, as 



14:8 THE AMERICAis^ MERIXG 

to come in contact with the jaw bone, and if not removed often 
cause death. At shearing-time this should be attended to ; let 
one man hold, and with a sharp, saw you can soon remove a 
wedged-shaped piece tbat will answer the requirement. I have 
always used for this purpose a small tenon-saw, and the same 
will answer for removing the rudimentary, re-entering horns 
which sometimes give trouble to wethers. 

Before the ram is dismissed to the pasture, it is well to give 
him a very light smearing of tar close around the base of the 
horns ; the fetor which prevails there is apt to attract flies, and 
maggots will result. It is surprising how quickly these abom- 
inable vermin will destroy a powerful ram if he is not promptly 
taken in hand. They soon invade the ears, and spread and 
multiply with amazing rapidity, until they invest the whole 
neck and breast ; a disgusting stench arises ; fever is created, 
and the wretched creature perishes in agony. 

Some shepherds fastidiously object to the tar being smeared 
around the horns. There is no necessity for it if the ram is 
housed, or kept close to the house where the owner will see him 
every day through the summer ; but if he is at a distance, it is 
best to employ the tar. If very lightly put on it will not dam- 
age any wool which is of value, nor injure the animal's appear- 
ance ; it is lasting in its effects, so that it will not have to be 
renewed more than once during the summer, while fish-oil or 
whale-oil will evaporate in a fortnight. 

To Prevent Fighting.— The ram must have some company 
during the summer, and a little bunch of calves or hogs will 
answer all purposes, if he is kept out of sight and hearing of 
other sheep. Or he may be placed with a few refuse wethers 
which it is desired to fatten and sell. In whatever company 
he is kept, it is best to have him not very distant from the 
house. There is no other domestic animal so restless and liable 
to escape, especially as autumn approaches, as the ram, and 
generally the more valuable he is as a lamb-getter, the more 
restless and pugnacious he is. 

• If two or more rams are kept together, they are liable to 
fight ; first, in the spring when freshly shorn ; second, toward 
autumn when the coupling season is coming on. "When freshly 
shorn they sometimes fail to recognize each other, and toward 
autumn the awakening procreative instinct renders them quar- 
relsome. At this latter season it is iiUrportant to keep other sheep 
at a distance. I have had two rams, which had lived peaceably 



FOR WOOL AXD MUTTOX. 



149 




"suiiv.^ 



r^~^ 



150 THE AMERICAN MERIXO 

togeMier all Bummer, become so excited by a flock of lambs 
that were driven by, that they fell foul of each other and the 
less vigorous one was well-nigh killed. 

If they are housed at night, they may be put into a tolerably 
small apartment ; by keeping thus closely together they do not 
have room to harm each other, and will soon become sufficiently 
acquainted so that they can be driven to pasture with but little 
fear of fighting. Should there be one or more that feel disposed 
to continue their combativeness, drive them to the barn, pro- 
cure a piece of leather about seven inches square — an old boot top 
will answer— then with a sharp knife cut as in figure 13. The 
upper part of this cap is placed on top of the head, between the 
horns ; then tie the two points on each 
side together, around the horns. A 
little practice will enable one to tit a 
cap m this manner as nicely as a shoe- 
maker will fit a boot to the foot. If 
necessary" the cap can be drawn tight 
to the nose by making holes, and tying 
from the si Acs underneath the jaw. 

mi • -11 ^- 1 J X / J. T'lg. 12.— BLINDER. 

This cap wiU entirely destroy a front ® 

view, and at the same time give a side view, enabling the 
animal to travel about where he chooses. This will stop the 
fighting ; at least it will so confound the rams that they can 
not deliver effective battle. 

How TO Tie a Ram. — During service it Is necessary to keep 
the ram shut up a greater part of the time, if not constantly. 
He will get little enough exercise at best, and will generally 
vent his impatience by butting. I make no particular attempt 
to curb him, but rather set up some springy boards that he can 
not damage and let him practice on them. To restrain a ram 
at all from his natural liberty during his service is a necessary 
evil, and it should be mitigated every way that is possible. 

Rams are so restless under confinement, tli;it where a number 
of them are in one apartment it is necessary to use the greatest 
care in fastening them, lest one should get loose and hammer 
another one to death. In the first place, pierce the left horn in 
front with a gimlet, then insert a three-sixteenth-inch staple 
and ring. In this ring have a leather loop six inches long, and 
in this loop insert the snap of a etout dog chain, for if the snap 
is put directly in the iron ring, the animal will work it out in 
spite of all precautions. The chain should be provided with a 
swivel, and the T at the end should be passed through an auger 



FOR WOOL AXD MUTTON. 151 

hole in a board. Thus secured he is generally safe ; but if he is 
exceptionally restless, it will be found advisable to attach a 
stout, leather hitching-strap to the ring, and tie him up short. 

Feeding. — I take it for granted that every progressive shep- 
herd no longer follows the plan of turning the ram in with the 
flock, but rather stables him and thereby husbands his powers. 
Some seek to compromise by turning him into the flock during 
the daytime, and removing him at night, but this way is very 
little better than the other. The ram ought to be taken up long 
enough before his service begins to get the grass bloat out of 
him, say a week or ten days. He should be accustomed gradu- 
ally to dry feed, and there is nothing better to assist him in 
the transit from grass to hay than sweet-corn stalks or pumi> 
kins. Give liim half a small pumpkin in hie box, flesh side up, 
and let him scoo;i it out at his leisure ; it will give him exer- 
cise. Furnish him all he will eat, three times a day, of the best 
hay on the farm, adding thereto only so much grain as may be 
necessary to keep him in good stock condition — a trifle lean, if 
anything, so that he will consume his grain aud pumpkin with 
relish, and never leave any in his feed-box to get stale. I have 
given rams wheat, rye, oats, corn and bran, separately and 
combined, in various ways. Theoretically, the more glutinous 
grains are better for him, but practically I see no difference ; ac 
least not when the animal receives a liberal ration of pumpkin. 
I should hesitate to give so heating a grain as corn to a ram, in 
large feeds, unless he bad with it plenty of green sweet-corn or 
grass, or pumpkin. With a generous supply of the latter he 
will eat two or three ears of corn per day, and yet refuse water 
for days together. I have settled down practically to corn for 
a grain ration ; I give one average ear a day before service be- 
gins, and two during service, varying somewhat according to 
the size and appetite of the ram. Of corn, oats and bran mixed 
in equal parts, I should give three times a day what I could con- 
veniently grasp in one hand. By all means contrive somehow 
to give the ram some exercise and sunlight in a dry paddock or 
barnyard. A ram in service requires above all things, muscle 
— clear muscle, not clogged or dulled with fat. 

Pumpkin should not be given to a ram after it has once be6n 
frozen ; it is liable to give him the scours. Neither should it be 
unripe or rotten, or be given with all the seeds. Small apples 
or potatoes are also good as a laxative. 

Management of the Service. — After experimenting con- 



152 THE AMERICAN MERINO 

siderably with different methods, I have adopted the following 
plan with the breeding flock : I drive them up in the morning 
as soon as the sun has warmed up the atmosphere and yard 
them. Then I turn loose amon;; them the most energetic one 
of the rams, and follow him up leisurely with the crook in hand. 
As fast as he discovers the ewes which are in season, I catch 
them and put them into a separate enclosure, until they are all 
drafted out, or until enough are secured for the day's operations. 
Then I dismiss the flock for the remainder of the day. It only 
remains now to sort them and select those which are best 
adapted by their individual qualities to the several rams, and 
turn one at a time into a smaller pen with the appropriate ram. 
It is best not to allow but a single effective service. I have 
lately adopted the plan of permitting each ram to cover no 
more than three ewes per day, with an interval of at least two 
hours between the services. This eliminates the possibility of 
any impairment of vigor, and secures strong, healthy lambs. 

Oftentimes the most valuable ram is slow and clumsy, and in 
this case the shepherd can save time and avoid trouble by hold- 
ing the ewe by the neck until she has been effectively served. 
If the ram's sheath hangs too low it will be necessary to belt 
him up somewhat tight with a leather surcingle. Sometimes he 
can be materially assisted by being allowed the benefit of a lit- 
tle slope in the ground or of a table a few inches high. 

Cross Rams. — When a very good ram is incurably vicious, 
his services may still be retained by keeping him constantly 
chained up and bringing the ewes to him. In this way he can 
never get the advantage of the shepherd. At other times he can 
be rendered harmless by the leather cap described on page 150. 
Constitution is of such transcendent importance in the sheep, 
that a fighting ram is likely to be exceptionally valuable, and 
he ought never to be killed for that fault alone. Most cross 
rams, if not too old, can be subdued by tvv'o or three vigorous 
kickings in the shoulder ; let the master seize him by the horn 
and put in the kicks until he has enough. A small hoop-pole, 
with two feet of the little end slightly twisted to make it pliable, 
can be applied with good effect about his nose and legs. Mr. 
E. J. Hiatt quaintly says : "A small mallet or light hammer 
carefully applied to the head or butt of the horns will satisfy 
any ram, and we al\s ays allow the ram the privilege of deciding 
how frequent and how severe the application must be. We are 
careful not to encourage a quarrel with a ram, but when noth- 
ing else will satisfy him, the remedy should be promptly ap- 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTO?^. 153 

plied." The keeper of a stud-flock generally has the leisure and 
the opportunity to make pets of his rams, to train them up 
gentle from the beginning ; but the ordinary shepherd can sel- 
dom lind time for this. 

"Winter Treatment. — Rams usually come from service into 
winter quarters more or less reduced in vitality, and require 
careful treatment during the winter. The grain ration given 
during service should not be discontinued for some time ; the 
ram should be placed in a clean, warm apartment, freshly lit- 
tered every few days ; and be allowed to have his liberty for a 
few houi's every other day or so, though he may be tied up 
very short all the rest of the time without injury. It is well to 
keep him blanketed until spring. A suitable blanket may be 
made of gunny-cloth or stout muslin, by cutting it to cover the 
body only, with loops of strings at the corners through which 
to pass the legs. 

One Ram, or More. — It is undeniable that greater uniformity 
can be secured by the use of a single ram ; and when he is of 
known and tested power, he can be depended on to do an as- 
tonishing amount of work without injury, if his vigor is pro- 
perly husbanded. The noted ram, "Fortune," owned by Mr. 
Solomon W. Jewett, of Vermont, used to get about two hun- 
dred lambs every year. Mr. Paris Gibson states that he had a 
ram which served three hundred and twenty ewes in one sea- 
son, getting three hundred and fifty lambs, then slieared twenty- 
six pounds of wool, and the following season made an equally 
good record. Dr. Randall states that the " Old Robinson Ram " 
was believed to have gotten over three thousand lambs in his 
life of thirteen or fourteen years. 

I said above that greater uniformity could be secured by the 
use of one ram than by the use of several. This would probably 
be the case in respect of the form of the lambs, but it might be 
fairly questioned whether this result could be expected in re- 
gard to their fleeces. The question as to the relative influence 
of the male and female in determining the external and internal 
characteristics of their progeny, is largely a speculative one and 
does not profoundly concern the practical shepherd. 

But uniformity presupposes perfection and precludes progress. 
If the breeder is satisfied that he has a perfect flock, he will not 
wish to depart from the standard in any respect. But I never 
saw a flock, even of registered full-breeds, which did not ex- 
hibit much variability. And indeed improvement is impossible 



154 THE AMERICAN MERINO 

in any flock which does not. It is only by selecting those in- 
dividuals which vary in a useful or promising direction, and 
repeating the process as often as we discern a departure toward 
betterment, that we can elevate the standard of the breed. And 
the larger the flock, the greater will be the number of promising 
variations, the wider will be our range of seleciion, and the 
more rapid will be our progress. Marshall, as quoted by Darwin, 
used to say of the sheep of Yorkshire : *' As they generaUy be- 
long to poor people, and are mostly in small lots, they never can 
be improved." 

If, then, the size of the flock wfll at all justify the expense, it 
is well to have two, three or more rams ; and the most obvious 
difference between them would be that one should be somewhat 
yolky, to serve the too dry-topped ewes, and the other the 
reverse. I have never seen but one flock approaching so nearly 
to absolute uniformity in body and fleece that two rams could 
not be employed upon it to advantage, and that was owned by 
Mr, Columbus Cheadle, of Morgan County, Ohio, — the work of 
a life-time. 

"Stubbling," Blacking, Etc. — As a general principle, the 
owner of a sheep may legitimately do anything to improve its 
appearance, which will not injure its health or procreative 
powers ; but, if questioned by the novice for honest informa- 
tion, he should honestly give it. 

To shear a sheep with a " stubble '' all over the body is wrong, 
even if it is so stated to the buyer or to the committee of a fair, 
because it is then impossible to tell accurately what the length 
of fiber would have been if shorn with ordinary closeness. 
This is a gross and clumsy fraud. But to " stubble" the cap— 
which is an almost universal practice with breeders now— to 
improve the appearance of the head, is legitimate, if so stated 
upon interrogation. 

The practice of dressing the fleece with lampblack has been 
abandoned by most breeders, even by the dishonest. It made 
.the fleece too black! But burnt umber is very often rubbed 
sparingly on the hips, the breast, legs and chin, where the wool 
has become frayed and whitened by rubbing, by dew or rain on 
the grass, or by lying down. The umber uniting with the 
natural yolk of the fleece, gives it a color true to nature. There 
is no objection to this practice that I am aware of ; but if the 
inexperienced wool-grower asks in regard to it, a frank explan- 
ation ought to be given. The application of linseed oil, merely 
to add weight to tlie fleece, is a contemptible fraud. 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOX. 155 

It is legitimate for the breeder to put a light blanket of sheet- 
in.<4- or gunny-cloth on a sheep during the summer, simply to 
render the exterior of the fleece mellow, moist and smooth to 
the touch. But he must take care not to over-do the matter. 
If it is left on more than a day or two in hot weather, the sheep 
may perspire freely, and the fleece will then become a muck 
of macerated yolk, odious to the touch, and requiring long 
treatment to restore it to a lively, elastic condition. The 
sheep's health will also be injured. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
THE BREEDING FLOCK. 

Selection of Breeding Ewes.— A great many of the char- 
acteristics of a good ram should also be sought in the ewe. The 
most obvious point of difference, of course, is determined and 
accentuated by the sexual functions. We seek in a ram a mas- 
sive and powerful front, thick fore-quarters, a cluster of volu- 
minous folds about the neck ; but the ewe should be, if anything, 
heavier in the hind quarters, because these are compelled to 
carry the burdens and resist the strain of the great processes of 
reproduction and lactation. Many excellent practical breeders 
seek what they denominate a '* pony sheep," but I have seldom 
attained the best results with short-legged ewes. It is seldom 
that the highest beauty of form is found united to superior 
breeding qualities — unless, indeed, long practical training has 
taught us to regard as the most comely, that figure which is 
found to be the best adapted to successfully sustain the arduous 
labors of maternity. 

I have succeeded best with moderately large, strong, rangy 
ewes ; of a figure typified — to use a homely comparison — by a 
wedge ; with an even taper from the shoulders back to the 
hind-quarters. A ram in full fleece should have an almost per- 
pendicular drop from the rump to the ground ; be thick through 
the heart ; with a girth just back of the shoulders about equal 
to that just in front of the hind-legs. But in the ewe, there 
may be tolerated a slight departure from the perpendicular, 
caused by a little less fullness in the ham ; while the rear girth 



156 THE AMERICA!!^ MERIKO 

should be from an eight to a sixth greater than the forward. In 
the best sucklers, especially when somewhat advanced in years, 
there ir a deep, pendulous fold along the median line of the 
belly, terminating in the udder — an indication of a generous 
anatomy and a generous milker. 

Mr. E. J. Hiatt's ''Old Sue," which at the age of fifteen had 
shorn two hundred and seventeen and three-quarter pounds of 
wool, and reared sixteen lambs, had a notable development of 
the posterior half of the body, conjoined with plainness (both 
technical and actual), as she was totally destitute of ' ' style. " 

It is true of sheep, as of all other anmials, that those of me- 
dium size are almost invariably the surest and safest perpetu- 
ators of their race. Hence a small ewe should be avoided no 
less than an over-sized one. 

Points in Which the Ewe Prevails. — As a general rule, 
the ewe gives the size and the ram the form ; and it is this fact 
which to so great an extent diminishes the danger which would 
otherwise be incurred by the couphng of a Merino ewe with a 
large English ram. This law of self-preservation, prevailing in 
every species, which gives the ewe the molding of the size, rele- 
gates to the ram more or less the shaping of other character- 
istics. So prepotent is the ram in this respect that, if a Merino 
ewe is impregnated for the first time by an English ram, the 
the chances are that some of her subsequent lambs will bear 
traces of his blood. 

We are often asked why, in the increase of some years, one 
sex predominates. It is held by some to be a universal law that 
exists in all the different races of animals, that the natural 
tendency of the male is to produce the female, while the ten- 
dency of the female is to produce the male. The party in which 
the life principle is the strongest at the time of conception pre- 
dominates. If it be the male, the issue will be a female, and if 
it be the female, the issue will be a male. Young rams kept in 
a thriving condition and bred to old ewes in low condition, will 
be sure to leave more ewe than ram lambs. A knowledge of 
this fact may sometimes be turned to advantage. 

Best Time for Drafting.— Two-year-old ewes, which have 
never yet borne lambs, at shearing-time, of course, can be 
marked only with reference to their fleeces and their size. But 
ewes which have been tested ought never to be allowed to go 
until the coupling season is at hand before the mark of con- 
demnation is afiSxed— if it is required. At lambing-time the 



FOR WOOL AXD MUTTOJs^. 157 

shepherd ought to have his stamping apparatus constantly- 
ready, and if a ewe is found to have an incurably deformed 
teat, or disowns the second lamb in succession (one season of 
disowning should not condemn her), or yeans a little trifling 
lamb, or in any other way gives proof of her unfitness as a 
breeder, the mark of dismissal should be promptly set upon her. 
In all other respects her record ought to be made up at shear- 
ing-time, because in the fall the wool will be grown long, and, 
if the farmer is not guided in his selection by indelible marks, 
or by a book record, he is apt to choose amiss. 

If the farmer is tempted, in order to make out a certain num- 
ber of breeders, to admit into the flock a small or unsightly 
ewe, he ought to bear in mind that ten good lambs are better 
than fifteen, of which five are inferior ; and that an ungainly 
lamb or ewe is almost certain to come conspicuously to the 
front when the flock is on exhibition. The rearing of a Iamb 
destroys for a long time the ewe's beauty of foi'm and compact- 
ness, and makes her of second-rate mutton quality ; and if fat- 
tened in the latter part of the season, she comes into a poor 
market and one which only good wethers will fill, principally 
for feeding. But if drafted now and thrown in witb the flock 
of wethers she will by next season, after running farrow, regain 
somewhat her beauty of form, and also take on flesh in the early 
part of the season, thus enabling her to be turned ofi" immedi- 
ately after shearing. Again, the owner Avill not be so much the 
loser, as she will somewhat make up in wool for her Ip.ck in not 
having been bred. 

Condition at Coupling.— Ewes will produce larger and bet- 
ter lambs if they are in good plump condition at the time of 
coupling ; if not in fair condition they should be gaining and be 
kept improving until coupling, or until they reach the desired 
condition. They will not breed well when loaded with fat. 
Those which lost their lambs or failed to conceive are liable to 
become too fat to be sure breeders ; when this is the case they 
should be placed on short pasture so as to reduce their weight. 
The use of valuable ewes is sometimes lost for a year or two by 
allowing them to become filled with fat ; such ewes are valu- 
able, their inclination to take on flesh readily is a good point, 
but requires guarding, that it may not impair their prolificacy, 

Period of Gestation. —Mr. E. M. Morgan, of Champaign 
County, *Ohio, in a communication to the Ohio Farmer makes 
the following statements : ''The first column shows date of 



158 THE AMERICAN MERIKO 

putting ram with ewes, and the second, the date of dropping of 
first lamb : 

Nov. 10, 1874 April 16, 1875 

Oct. 25, 1875 March 2-i, 1876 

Oct. 17, 1876 March 12, 1877 

Oct. 12,1877 March 8,1878 

Oct. 21, 1878 March 16, 1879 

Nov. 3,1879 April 2,1880 

Oct.. 15, 1880 March 16, 1881 

On October 31, 1878, the ram was put with the ewes in the 
barn and served three within half an hour, which were caught 
and marked. On the 16th of March following, the first lamb 
was dropped by one of these ewes, the second on the 22d, and 
the third on the 27th of March, making a variation of eleven 
days in the time between first and last. These three lambs were 
all ewes. This seems to disprove the theory that an animal will 
go longer with male than with female progeny. Taking the 
average time of all our ewes, we find it to be one hundred and 
forty-nine days, for the seven years we have kept record." 

Time of Lambing. — It is important for the farmer to be well 
assured in his own mind whether his circumstances favor early 
or late lambing. Latitude has much to do in deciding this ques- 
tion ; likewise the size of the breeding flock, and the convenience 
and comfort of the sheep house, or the contraiy. I have stead- 
fastly advocated lambing on grass, because here in Southern 
Ohio, and with one hundred and fifty or one hundred and 
seventy-five evi^es in the flock, it is undoubtedly the wisest 
policy. In a higher latitude and with a smaller flock, the case 
would probably be different. We know that sheep, as well as 
others of the mammals, are not as good milkers in hot climates 
as they are in cooler ones. The excess of heat interferes with 
the lactific functions and curtails the secretion of milk. My 
belief is that when a ewe does not yean until the strong heat of 
summer sets in, say along toward the middle or last of May, her 
usefulness as a suckler is seriously impaired. It is different with 
. her from what it is with a cow. The ewe still bears the thick, 
warm fleece which was intended as a protection against the 
rigor of winter ; consequently the heat operates on her with a 
m.uch greater and more prostrating power than it does upon 
the cow. As a corollary to this proposition, it follows neces- 
sarily that suckling ewes should be shorn before the weather 
becomes hot. If they are left with their fleeces on, the accum- 
ulation of heat dries up their milk. 



FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTOT^. 159 

Feeding for Milk. — Ewas that are to bear lambs very early 
must be fed for milk as much as a dairy cow. The feed must 
be of a character that will produce the greatest quantity of 
milk. This can be secured by providing plenty of clover, millet 
or fodder. Some very good shepherds recommend wetting 
these and mixing with ground feed. The finer feed can be 
made, the better for any stock ; but wetting is unnecessary, if 
only an abundance of water is provided. The more feed can 
be masticated and insalivated, the better, and wetting hinders 
this. But the water should be kept at a temperature not much 
below sixty degrees, to induce pregnant animals to drink freely. 

May Lambs. — I have found among old shepherds a prejudice 
against "May lambs ; " and this prejudice is founded principally 
on the belief that the burning sun of our inland American 
summer " stunts or wilts " the lambs. There is no denying that 
a May or June lamb, though it generally shoots up for a few 
weeks with a rapid growth, does become stunted later on and 
gets into a decidedly poor condition before weaning time, un- 
less the ewe is an exceptionally good milker, or the lamb has a 
ration of grain through the summer. It should always be borne 
in mind that the ewe is not, like the cow, an all-tlie-year-round 
milker ; the ewe's lactific activity is exceptional, and though 
very often, especially on grass, of considerable force for a time, 
it quickly ceases. Hence it is of great importance to bring the 
lamb along early enough and so rapidly that it may be well 
confirmed in its grass-eating habits, and may have acquired 
the additional capacity of stomach, required for this less con- 
centrated food, while the grass is yet lush, tender and inviting 
in spring. A lamb does not take to grass so readily if it first 
begins to eat it in summer after it has become dry and tough. 

Of course there is no foundation for the belief that the sun 
" wilts" a late lamb. I never give myself any concern about a 
May or June lamb, if I am only able to provide nourishment 
enough for it ; for I have often abundantly proved, by rearing 
them as cossets about the house, that this suflSciency of aliment 
was all that was needed. 

Necessity of Exercise.— The Merino ewe is something like 
the Texas cow — not the best of mothers. A native of the desert, 
she still retains in her blood a remnant of nomadic, oriental 
wildness. An industrious, insatiable feeder, accustomed to rove 
widely in search of her living, not tranquil and sedentary like 
the large-uddered English ewe; like the ostrich, she is apt to 



160 THE AMERICAN MERINO 

abandon her young, to take care of itseK. She needs watching, 
and needs a certain pressure to be brought to bear upon her too 
feeble maternal instincts. 

Extended experience has taught me that a Merino ewe which 
has a copious flow of milk is seldom failing in duty toward her 
offspring. The first and paramount duty of the shepherd, there- 
fore, is to pursue such a preliminary course as will best secure 
this desideratum. A regimen of roots, oil-cake meal, bran, 
fodder, clover hay, etc., will readily suggest itseK ; but, valu- 
able as these are, they are not for the Merino ewe of the very 
highest importance. The article which, in my opinion, holds 
this rank is grass, and (perhaps scarcely secondary in value) the 
exercise which is necessary to obtain it. There is no other 
domestic animal which so eagerly craves and industriously 
searches for a morsel of green feed cropped directly from the 
surface of the earth. And it is this restless, vagabondizing, 
gormandizing propensity of the Merino which the shepherd can 
take advantage of and promote, to the end that he may develop 
the rather feeble maternal instinct. It is as profoundly and 
universally true of the lower animals, and especially of the 
pregnant ewe, as of man, that they ought to work for their hv- 
ing. Pasturing (that is, a daily run on a sod, whether it furnishes 
much or next to nothing) means work, and work means health ; 
while roots mean cold-blooded and watery idleness. There is 
nothing else which so strengthens the frame and enriches the 
system with warm, red blood (and, by necessity of the insepar- 
able relation between them, that of the unborn lamb also), as a 
frequent ramble over the pasture lot. 

Even when quite sedentary, the ewe may be made to give 
milk with tolerable success by judicious feeding on oil-cake meal. 
Perhaps as good a way as any is to make it into a slop with 
wheat bran, a tablespoonful of oil-cake to a pint of bian per 
head ; but unless she has frequent and abundant exercise, the 
lamb will be weak, and will need close watching if dropped on 
a frosty night. In the course of my experience, I have had 
large, rangy grade ewes — and a grade is popularly supposed to 
be hardier than a full-blood — which had been full fed and 
warmly housed, drop large, finely formed lambs, which yet 
were so flaccid and so nerveless that it would be hours before 
they could stand alone, and that only after the most assiduous 
attentions of the shepherd, warming them before the fire, rub- 
bing them with wisps of straw, etc. On the other hand, I have 
had full-blooded ewes, which had roved nearly all day during 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 161 

the winter through a corn stubble, getting next to nothing in it 
but the exercise, drop lambs on so cold a night that their feet 
were frozen and deformed ; yet they got up, sucked, and were 
lively as crickets in the morning, without having received a 
particle of assistance from the flock-master. 

The English sheep books abound in directions for the making 
and administering of cordials, syrups, etc., and for rendering 
assistance to ewes in labor ; but a few teaspoonfuls of grass- 
made milk are worth more than all the nostrums ever com- 
pounded. Neither is it necessary to defer the season of lambing 
until grass has grown green in April. 

Rye for Pasture.— In the latitude of Southern Ohio a very 
considerable growth of rye may often be had for pasture as 
early as March 15th. An hour's grazing on it per day will have a 
surprising effect in stimulating the secretion of milk ; indeed, 
it is best not to allow the ewes to remain on it above a half hour 
the first day. Rye may be sown for fall pasture as early as 
August 1st. If the weather should be very favorable there will 
be danger of its jointing before winter sets in ; this can be pre- 
vented by keeping it pastured off. The value of the crop is 
much injured if it is allowed to joint or head out in autamn. 

The white rye yields the greater amount of grain, but the 
old-fashioned black rye is hardy, makes a rank growth, and is 
probably preferable for pasture. It should not be cropped too 
close in the fall, as its greatest value is in the green herbage 
which it furnishes for ewes and lambs before grass grows in 
the spring. On rich limestone soils and in low latitudes, wheat 
often makes such a strong growth that it will furnish a large 
amount of grazing for ewes and lambs in March and April ; and 
there ia a mass of testimony to the effect that such depasturing 
is beneficial to the wheat itself when it is very forward. 

Second in value — and on the rich river bottoms of the West, 
I would assign it the first rank, on account of the tendency of 
rye to develop ergot on such soils — is an orchard-grass rowen, re- 
served for this purpose, with its mixture of weather-beaten 
herbage above with green growth beneath. 

Acorns. — In my experience I have found that, while acorns 
are not only innocuous, but fattening to dry flocks, they exert 
an injurious effect upon ewes and goats in a forward state of 
pregnancy. If they feed on them for any considerable length 
of time while in this condition, their young when dropped will 
be feeble in the legs, unable to stand or walk for several days, 



162 THE AMERICAN MERINO 

and walking in a sort of plantigrade fashion for some time after 
they do succeed in getting on their feet. 

Recurrence of Ewes. — When there is for any reason, a 
failure to conceive, the ewe will be in heat again, if at all, in 
about two weeks. To make a iDrovision for these I manage the 
coupling in the following manner : As fast as the ewes are 
served, I affix a special mark and turn them into another apart- 
ment, which opens into a small paddock or ram-pasture kept 
for this purpose. If allowed to go with the flock again, they 
would in all probability present themselves again the next day, 
and so tax the ram a second time uselessly. On the following 
day, when the main flock is brought up, the little band of 
served ewes will also come to the stable, and, after the business 
of the day is over and the main flock dismissed, the ewes served 
the previous day can be allowed to go wit/h them. 

If the coupling is well managed there ought not to be many 
ewes that "miss." When the pasture is weak and watery, or 
short from dry weather, they ought to be grain-fed at the rate 
of a half bushel of shelled corn daily per hundred, for a week 
before, and all the while during the service. It is well, when 
they are brought up in the forenoon to keep them on the sunny 
side of the building ; the warm rays of the sun have a stimu- 
lating effect. The ram ought to be allowed ample time to 
search out all that are in season, for there are always some that 
are backward and will never approach the ram or give any 
evidence of being in season. If the ram is indifferent or logy, 
he ought to be kept tied in the shade between-times. On 
muggy, sultry days, frequently twice the usual number of ewes 
will come in heat ; this will demand increased activity, it will 
tax the ram to the utmost, and sometimes the shepherd will 
lose ground by not having an extra animal to fall back upon. 

A sudden change to cold weather is also to be guarded against. 
A long, cold rain, followed by high winds, hinders the dispatch 
of business ; the sexual heat is checked ; some ewes may pass 
their season altogether, and thus two weeks will be lost. They 
ought by all means to be housed during such weather. 

The shepherd ought to use all dispatch to push the coupling 
through in thirty days or less. After winter comes on, if there 
is a rertmant of ewes not served, they will be in heat no more 
and they are lost. Besides, it is tedious to have the lambing 
drag at great length in the spring. 

" Teasers." — No well-informed shepherd ever resorts to the 



FOK WOOL AND MUTTON^. 163 

" teaser " in these days. It was the clumsy device of an un- 
practiced age ; an outrage against nature, an imposition on both 
ewe and ram. 

Age of Ewes.— Bringing her first lamb at three, the average 
Merino ewe is entitled to be released from service at seven. It 
is useless to cite cases — as I might do by the dozen — where ser- 
vice began younger and continued longer. All rules have their 
exceptions. As long as the ewe's teeth continue firm and sound, 
and she stands up stoutly under her burden through the winter, 
she may be retained in the breeding flock ; but let the shepherd 
beware lest he should keep her one year too long, and before 
spring lose both her and the lamb, for then she dies in his debt. 
A ewe in a flock of ten may bear lambs two or three years longer 
than one in a flock of one hundred. In flocks of considerable 
size the crones must be weeded out rigorously, or the flock- 
master will suffer loss. 

Fall and Winter Lambs. — " Spring lamb," like *' spring 
chicken," has its own proper season of the year, and out of this 
season there will never be any considerable demand for either. 
In the winter the appetite calls for fat mutton, thick on the rib. 
But now and then some ambitious farmer dreams anew the 
dream (which is as old as the appetite for mutton), of growing 
" spring lamb " the fall before. It is a reversal of the course of 
nature which never can prosper except in rare instances, under 
peculiarly favorable circumstances and good management. In 
a communication to the Ohio Farmer, Mr. E. M. Morgan,- of 
Champaign Co., O., gives some experience which is so interest- 
ing, that I quote the greater part of it : 

*' In the spring of 1882, after washing our sheep, supposing 
that no evil would result from it, we let the ram run with our 
breeding ewes (then suckling lambs dropped from March 15 to 
April 15), until shearing. In the fall, about November 1st, fif- 
teen or eighteen of these same ewes dropped lambs, the result 
of letting the ram run with them from washing to shearing 
time. 

" When we began feeding for the winter, we fixed a place in 
one end of the stable so the lambs could enter and the ewes 
could not, and sprinkled some bran and salt in the trough. 
Very soon the lambs learned to go there, and in a short time 
they would run for their pen to get their rations, as greedy as a 
litter of pigs for a mess of milk. We fed them liberally through 
the winter and they came out in the spring in fine condition. 



164 THE AMEEICAK MERI:N^0 

Encouraged by their fine appearance, we turned the ram with 
our ewes again, on the 9th of May, and will try our luck again 
with fall lambs. At washing time this spring we washed the 
lambs, thinking we would shear one or two ; and if thought 
profitable, would shear the whole lot. The first one sheared 
clipped a fleece that weighed exactly five pounds. Encouraged 
by this, we sheared the other twelve, and from the lot got fifty- 
four pounds of wool, which we sold along with our other wool, 
at the same price. ******" The ewes came through 
the winter in fine condition, and when I weaned the lambs they 
were in much better condition than I ever had ewes when the 
lambs were weaned in the fall, and sheared an average of seven 
and eleven-twenty-sixths pounds per fleece. A lot of thirty-two 
yearhngs, wintered with the ewes, clipped an average of nine 
and three-sixteenths pounds per head, all nicely washed wool, 
and all sold at market prices. I would say to those who are 
prepared to properly care for fall lambs to give it a trial. My 
sheep are high grade Merinos." 

There is no gainsaying that a winter lamb, when it is well 
nourished, will surpass the later comers out of proportion to its 
gain of time at the start ; and it will keep ahead for two or even 
three years. One year I had fourteen lambs dropped in Jan- 
uary by reason of a ram getting into the flock prematurely ; 
with much labor I saved ten of them. At the age of a year 
they weighed sixteen and one-half pounds per head more than 
the April lambs, and clipped about one and one-quarter pound 
more wool. Judged by the eye alone, they were still nearly as 
much in advance at the age of two years. 

Ewes Getting Cast. — Ewes are liable in the spring, when 
far advanced in pregnancy, to get on a little slope with their 
backs down-hill, in which condition they are unable to rise. 
The wool spreads out on the ground and prevents the sheep 
from rising, when without the fleece it would be able to get on 
its feet. Cattle will struggle a while, then rest and renew their 
efforts, and they generally get up ; but sheep get discouraged 
and abandon all efibrts. In a short time they wiU bloat and 
die, unless assisted. The shepherd should be on the lookout for 
castaways when they are in the field ; and he should level all 
inequalities in the surface of the yard and stable where breeding 
ewes are confined. 



FOE WOOL AXD MUTTOi^. 



165 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SHEEP-HOUSES AND THEIR APPURTENANCES. 

It would be easy to fill this volume with plans and sketches 
of possible sheep-houses, all of which would be theoretically- 
good. I shall limit myself to such as have been put to the test 
of actual use and found serviceable. 

For Breeding Ewes.— The figure herewith presented is that 
of a building owned by Mr. G. C. Smith, of Washington Co., O. 




Fig. 13. — SHEEp-nousE of c. c. smith.— ground plan. 

It is fifty by twenty feet, eighteen feet high to the eaves, cov- 
ered with a sheet-iron roof, two-sided, with the usual pitch. It 
is designed to shelter at the most about eighty sheep, and is 
used mostly for breeding ewes and as a shearing-room and 
wool-room. Hence the comparatively small allowance of space 
for hay should not be accepted as a guide for a general purpose 
sheep-house. 

The lower story is eight feet high, the second ten. The upper 
story is divided crosswise into two equal compartments — one 
for wool and one for hay — with a tight partition between. 
Hence the hay-mow, as I intimated 
above, is too small to contain a win- 
ter's supply for the flock below, a 
point which it is always desirable to 
compass in the average sheep-house. 
To curtail this mow, twenty-five by 
twenty feet, as little as possible, the 
owner, instead of throwing a girt 
across between the plates to prevent 
spreading, put in dove-tailed braces 
from the top of the posts down to the joist girts, as in figure 14. 

Across the wool-room the plates are connected by an iron rod. 
The floor is tight and smooth, and the sides ceiled in the same 
fashion. At one corner of the room, at one end of the shearing 




Fig. 14— BRACE. 



166 THE AMEEICAJ^ MERIKO 

table, there is an elevator and cage large enough to hoist five or 
six sheep from the lower story to be shorn ; the floor of the 
elevator to serve as part of the floor of the room. This is worked 
by weights. The object sought in elevating the sheep to the 
second story for shearing is two-fold — to avoid all dirt about the 
shearing table and to have the wool where it is wanted for stor- 
age, in a perfectly clean place. 

The wool racks are so constructed that every fleece can be in- 
spected without one of them being moved. When fifteen or 
twenty buyers come along during the season and look the clip 
over, it is liable to become seriously frayed and shredded if 
heaped in the usual pyramid in the center of the room. (By 
referring to the chapter on shearing, the reader will learn the 
construction of these racks). 

The building is sided and battened perfectly tight. There are 
no sills ; the posts stand on stones. The floor is of gravel, sev- 
eral inches higher than the surrounding level, and the siding 
reaches down within two or three inches of the floor. The bed- 
ding will be so thick as to reach up against the siding, prevent- 
ing a cold wind from blowing underneath. Manure can always 
be removed much more easily when several inches of straw is 
thrown down in the fall. 

Five feet above the ground are windows, sliding laterally, 
with four panes of glass, ten by sixteen inches each. The four 
doors, one on each end and one on each side midway, are 
double ; the outer ones battened tight and opening outward ; 
the inner ones of slats and opening inward. The slats are close 
enough together to exclude chickens. Thus the building can be 
ventilated by the slat doors, or all the doors can be closed and a 
draft be allowed to pass overhead through the windows. The 
end doors are folding-doors, wide enough to allow the manure 
wagon to enter. The ground floor can be divided, as desired, 
into two, three or four compartments, by hay-racks running 
across the building, each rack with a little gate at the end of it. 
.A cistern stands midway of one side, the water from the oppo- 
site roof -slope being carried to it through the building. 

The cut fig. 13, on the preceding page, shows the ground plan. 

The second story is lighted by small slat-windows. 

Hay is hoisted into the second story at one end of the build- 
ing with a horse-fork. 

There is a smaller building intended for a stove-room or 
lying-in hospital, being situated only a few steps from the 
large one above described. It is about fifteen feet square, per- 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 



167 



fectly tight, double walls with saw-dust between, divided off by 
light gates into eight or ten little pens, each lai'ge enough for 
one ewe and lamb. A stove standing in the center of the floor, 
well heated up at 9 o'clock at night, keeps the atmosphere suffi- 
ciently warm through the night to insure the safety of the 
weakest lamb arriving before six in the morning. 

A General-Purpose House.— I give below a diagram of one 
of my own sheep-houses, merely premising that I have em- 
bodied in the description some changes which subsequent ex- 
perience taught me would have been imjDrovements to the 
building. It is forty by forty-five feet, giving (without the 
racks) eighteen hundred feet of superficial area, which I find 
sufiicient for a dry flock numbering one hundred and fifty, or 
for one hundred and twenty-five ewes. I use it principally for 
the latter. It is composed of a main central frame, twenty by 




Fig. 15.— GENERAL-PURPOSE HOUSE. 

forty-five, and two wings or sheds, each ten by forty-five. The 
main building is seventeen feet high to the eaves ; this gives 
ten feet storage for hay, and I find by experience that a body 
of hay twenty by forty -five by ten, will comfortably feed one 
hundred and fifty sheep once a day for two months. (Hay for 
the rest of the winter is pitched in from an adjoining barn 
through a partition.) Hay is thrown down from the loft of the 
central building into the wings, through chutes constructed 
something like dormer windows, falling into racks placed as 
indicated in the engraving (the rows of dots denote the posts of 
the main structure). 

At one side is a series of portable pens for ewes and lambs in 
lambing-time. The wings have not quite so steep a pitch as the 



168 THE AMEEICA]N" MEKIXO 

main building, which is one-third. The elevation of the wings 
at the outside is only seven feet, which is simply enough to 
allow a span of horses to pass under comfortably in hauling out 
manure. There is not a sill in the building ; all the posts stand 
on stones, which are planted on solid foundations of broken 
stone, let dow^n into the ground about twenty inches. A sill is 
useless in a sheep-house ; it is worse than useless, for it is apt 
to rot and let the building sag down one way or the other. By 
keeping all sills out, there is afforded a free drive-way all about 
the building, and out through the side of it wherever it is con- 
venient to cut a door. I filled up the inside of the building with 
yellow loam— which packs harder than almost anything else 
except clay — six inches higher than the surrounding level, to 
prevent the interior from being flooded in winter. In place of 
a sUl I set up thin, wide stones on edge inside the siding and 
leaning against the same, jointed and fitted so as to prevent the 
earth from toucliing the siding. A corresponding ridge of earth 
or gravel outside, tamped against the stones and sloping down 
as a spatter-board for the eaves (though it would be still better 
to have an eaves-trough) will prevent the earth from pressing 
the stones out too much against the siding. 

There are nine windows in the building, arranged to slide 
laterally, so that the inside can be ventilated in muggy weather, 
as the siding is very tight. There are five doors, one opening 
into the grain yard, one into the fodder yard, and three for the 
Ingress and egress of the manure wagon. They are sliding-* 
doors, as I consider a swing-door on an out-building a nuisance. 
A one-and-a-quarter-inch strip of wood is faced with a one-and- 
a-half-inch bar of iron, three-eighths of an inch thick, which 
projects one-fourth of an inch above the wooden strip and fur- 
nishes a guide for the door rollers to travel on. This strip put 
on with two-inch screws, one every foot, will hold up ten times 
the weight of a door. The bottom of a door has to be confined 
with stakes, to prevent the sheep from carrying it away when 
they rush out in great numbers, hungry for their feed. 

This building is sided with dressed pine and painted ; the old- 
fashioned linseed-oil and white-lead paints give me better results 
in the long run than any of the modern ready-mixed proprietary 
articles. I had it covered with home-made oak shingles, twenty 
inches long and laid six inches to the weather. Where the ma- 
terial is at hand these are better and cheaper than sawn pine 
shingles. An iron roof is preferable to pine shingles. In one 
end of the budding, overhead, is the wool-room ; in the other 



FOR WOOL a:n'd muttoi^. 169 

end the corn-room, to which the corn is elevated by horse-power, 
with rope and pulleys, in two boxes which together fill the 
wagon-bed. 

A House for a Small Flock.— Any sheep-house is defective 
which is not provided with faciUties for securing perfect ventil- 
ation on the one hand, and on the other, for closing it up tight 
in severe weather. The Merino is intolerant, above all things, 
of a foul, reeking atmosphere and dampness underfoot. Inside 
slat-doors, as in Mr. Smith's sheep-house, are excellent ; another 
very good arrangement consists of doors hinged on the upper 
side, so that they can be dropped down during storms accom- 
panied by wind. 

So, also, is any sheep-house defective which has no hay-loft, 
although a mere shed or wind-break may be constructed with- 
out one. But all hay-lofts should hare a perfectly tight floor. 
I have seen sheep going around with hay-seed sprouted and 
the grass growing out of the wool on their backs. 

A building twenty feet wide will comfortably house two 
sheep for every foot in length (if not breeding ewes). Thus fifty 
feet in length would accomodate one hundred sheep. It 
should have its length running east and west, then it will make 
a more effective wind-break for the yard attached to it. A rack 
running centrally the whole length of the building, except four 
feet at each end, will give feeding-room for all the sheep. This 
rack may be connected at the top with a tight board hopper 
that reaches to an opening in the otherwise tight flooring of the 
hay-loft above. This sheep-house can be divided into as many 
rooms as the occasion may demand. When the hay is put into 
the mow some short strips or boards are laid across the opening 
in the floor to the rack below, and the hay is put in one con- 
tinuous mow the whole length of the building. After the mow 
has become settled, just before winter sets in, a hay knife is 
used to cut a hole three feet wide down to the opening in the 
floor. The hay thus cut out is flung up on the mow that by 
this time has settled enough to receive it. The hay is put into 
this mow through convenient doors in the side of the building 
made for that purpose, and is given to the sheep by simply 
pitching it down into the rack. There is no wasting of hay by 
this means of feeding, and the flock can be fed without having 
to be turned out of doors into a storm. 

Grouping op Sheep-Houses. — When farm buildings are 
closely grouped, if one of them takes fire, all will bum. But it 



170 



THE AMERICAN MERIKO 



is better to incur this risk than to compel one's self, by distribu- 
ting the buildings about over the farm, to travel on a vp^inter's 
morning a half-mile or a mile in the snow or the storm. Four 
hundred Merinos can be wintered in perfect health and good 
condition on three-fourths of an acre, if proper diligence is used 
in cleaning out the stables and keeping down the ammonia. I 
make this assertion understandingly, because my experience has 
demonstrated the entire practicability of so doing. 

Besides, it is very desirable to secure for every flock on the 
farm, as great a variety of feed as possible ; hence it is more 
convenient to mass together the straw, hay, fodder, millet and 
the various kinds of grain at or near the farm headquarters, 
than it is to parcel them out in smaller lots in three or four dif- 
ferent places. It is inexpedient to give one flock all the straw, 
another all the fodder, etc. ; neither is it convenient to drive 





i r" * 

J U U ^d 



Fi^. 16.— GEOUP OP THREE BUILniNGS. 
h, House ; p, Pump : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Grain Troughs. . 

the flocks about in a rotation through sheep-houses, separated by 
considerable distances, in order to secure this very desirable 
alternation or variety in feed. I find it best every way to group 
the stables about headquarters, and then during the summer 
collect near them all the various feed-stuffs required for their 
support through the winter. 

Figure 16 shows a group of buildings in which the grain-yard, 
open only on the east, is protected from three-fourths of the 
winds ; it is accessible from all the stables. The troughs should 
be about eight feet apart, to allow a row of sheep to stand on 
one side of each, with room enough for others to run along 
between. To prevent the sheep from jumping into the troughs 
or over them, which they are extremely likely to do, a row of 
^takes must be driven along one side of each trough and two 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTT0:N". 171 

slats nailed to them ; the lower slat is about nine inches above 
the trough, the upper one about four feet above the ground. 
This grain-yard will have to be lower than the floor of the three 
houses, else the water falling into it may run into them. The 
plan contemplates two fenced yards on the east side of the group — 
one for the right-hand the other for the left-hand stable. If any 
considerable amount of orts, stalks aud manure accumulates in 
these two yards, it will obstruct the drainage of the grain-yard 
before spring ; and to relieve the latter it will be necessary to 
run a drain-tile under some one of the three houses, according 
to the slope of the ground. 

The flock on the west side of the group can be accomodated 
by a yard on that side, which will have to be screened from the 
west and north winds by a high, tight board fence. The doors 
are so aligned that a manure-wagon can be driven lengthwise 
through either of the three houses. 

Doors and Gates. — I have found, in the course of long per- 
sonal experience in feeding sheep, that a door or gate through 
which a hundred grown sheep are to rush, eager for their feed 
of grain, must be so constructed that it can be opened in the 
quickest possible way. A door swinging out laterally is apt to 
be obstructed by snow-drifts, ice, orts, manure, etc.; besides 
which, it is always swinging open in the wind when it is needed 
to be shut, and vice versa. Then, too, no matter which way it 
opens, when the time arrives for it to be opened the sheep are 
very often huddled against it so that it cannot be moved. If 
swing-doors are used at all, they ought to be folding-doors, care- 
fully hung in such fashion as to avoid all obstacles. 

After experimenting with several kinds of doors and gates I 
have adopted the following : Where the side of the stable is 
low, I have a sliding-door, eight feet long, hung on rollers and 
a slide as described earher in the chapter. Where the side of 
the stable is high enough to admit it, I have a hoist-gate, of the 
same length, suspended from a pulley overhead with weights 
enough to balance it. It should be made of very light slats, set 
close enough together to prevent the sheep from getting their 
heads between them, as the gate is hoisted. The frame- work 
or guide on each side, in which the gate plays up and down, 
must be nicely adjusted and true, and it is well to have small 
pulleys let into the outer sides of the heel and toe posts, to ob- 
viate friction. An iron rod fastened to each of the posts, bent 
upward and provided with a loop in the middle to receive the 
rope, is the best attachment for hoisting the door. 



172 THE AMEEICAN MERINO 

Where a gate is required in a yard, through which a large 
flock niust pass quickly several times a day, ic is extremely im- 
portant to have it so firranged that they can pass through with- 
out friction. The best gate is a panel of portable fence, twelve 
feet long and five feet high, made of slats close enough together 
to exclude the sheeps' heads, light but strong, and put together 
with clinch-nails. This can be kept closed by some simple fast- 
enings at each end. When these are loosened the gate is thrown 
to the ground, and the flock rush pell-mell over it. 

Feed-Racks. — The purpose of a feed-rack is two-fold : — 

1. To keep the feed in. 

2. To keep the sheep out. 

The first and greatest requisite toward the making of a good 
hay-rack I would formulate thus : Gut hay green. That is to 
say, if the hay is thoroughly good the sheep will stand quietly 
and eat it ; but if it is inferior they will continually ran to and 
fro, pulling out a little here and a little there, chewing the heads 
off as they run, and dropping the remainder underfoot. 

With regard to the first point above mentioned, I may say 
that, so far as my own experience goes, when the hay is bright 
and sweet, I have found the old-fashioned, slatted box-rack good 
enough for all practical purposes. And when the hay is not good, 
no rack, however ingenious, will prevent sheep from wasting 
more or less feed. I will enumerate some general principles 
which ought to be observed in the construction of all racks : 

1. Portahleness. A rack fastened down anywhere, though it 
will undoubtedly wear longer, is objectionable. It is inconve- 
nient to remove manure from beneath it, and it cannot be used 
to partition off a house into compartments of different sizes and 
shapes to suit an emergency. There is nothing better for this 
purpose than a portable rack. 

2. A tight floor. Every sheep-house should have the earth 
for its floor, and if the rack has no floor of its own a great deal 
of tine feed wfll mold on the ground and be lost. 

3. Sufficient elevation. In every flock of considerable size, no 
matter how well bred, there will be some leggy animals that 
wiU never be satisfied until they are inside the rack. The rack 
should be forty inches high. 

4 . Separation of hay-rack and grain-trough. Many of the best 
practical shepherds, with small flocks to care for, by various 
contrivances unite rack and trough together ; but in my own 
experience, especially with large flocks, I always found these 



roil WOOL Ais'D MUTTOK. 



173 



objectionable. It is almost impossible to prevent troughs so 
situated from becoming receptacles for dung. In any event, 
they have to be cleaned out at every feed, else the grain will be 
mingled with orts, chaff, seed, etc. Out-door troughs collect 
snow and ice, it is true, but that is all, and they do not require 
to be cleaned half as often as troughs attached to racks. Never- 
theless I have figured further on some of these combinations. 

Racks are single or double ; that is, the sheep reaches through 
between one set of slats or between two sets. There is no great 
gain in a rack made double, except that a place is furnished for 
a feed-trough, which is placed at the bottom of the hay-rack, 
between the outer and inner sets of slats. In a double rack the 
sheep is prevented from thrusting its neck full length into the 
hay and cannot get chaff into its wool. This is unimportant, 
however, unless sheep are to be shorn immediately at the close 
of the feeding season ; if they run on pasture a few weeks the 
chaff will work out of the neck-wool of its own accord. 

A single rack should be, for lambs, about two feet wide ; for 
grown sheep, about thirty inches. This width should enable 



• 

* 


• 
• 


« 






* 
• 
» 


« 


b 




u 




Fig. 17.— END VIEW, SINGLE EACK. Fig. 18.— END VIEW, DOUBLE RACK. 

two sheep, standing on opposite sides, to reach the middle. It 
may be of any length desired ; fourteen feet is convenient. For 
lambs it need not be over thirty inches high. There should be 
about nine inches space between the top-board and the bottom- 
board ; the slats four inches wide ; the spaces between them 
eight inches wide for grown sheep, six inches for lambs. 
This gives each lamb ten inches space to stand in, each grown 
sheep a foot. All edges should be rounded off to prevent tear- 
ing of wool. The comer posts, four in number, may be about 
four inches square. An end view is shown in figure 17. 
Figure 18 represents the end of a double-rack, or an inside 



174 



THE AMERTCAIir MERIKO 



V-shaped rack and an outside perpendicular-sided one. The in< 
side rack is made of slats nailed on a V-shaped trough which is 
inverted and nailed down on the floor of the rack. 

Figure 19 shows a V-shaped rack with a feed-trough at the 
bottom on each side. The rack-sticks are round ; they are let 
into the bottom-plank by auger-holes, and into the top-boards 
the same way. 

Figure 20 is an end view of another double-rack ; two V-shaped 




Fig. 19.— SINGLE RACK AND 
FEED-TUOUGH, 



Fig. 20. — END VIEW, TWO 
DOUBLE-KACKS. 



racks inside of one square one, with a feed-trough at the bottom 
of each. 

Cisterns for Sheep-Houses.— The importance of having a 
supply of water in the winter not below the temperature of fifty 
degrees is so great, especially for breeding ewes, that nothing 
will justify the flock-master in neglecting it. To put in and equip 
a one hundred and fifty-barrel cistern, with all its appurtenances 
of tin eaves-troughs, spouting, etc., costing twenty-five dollars, 
or such a matter besides the labor, is one thing. To sink a 
fifty-barrel cistern, wall it and plaster it one's self, and furnish 
everything required about it of wood, made by one's own hands, 
and costing altogether not above six or seven dollars, is another 
and very different thing. 

I do not say that every flock-master should attempt to do all 
this work himself, whatever his circumstances, but if he feels 
particularly poor, he can do it and keep the money it would cost 
in his pocket. 

A cistern seven feet across and six feet deep will contain fifty 
barrels. But a deep, bottle-shaped cistern is better — say ten feet 
deep and five feet across. Seventy-five cents will pay for the 
digging. If the soil is a stiff tenacious clay, or soapstone, the 
brick wall need not go below the frost line. In most cases, 



FOR WOOL AN^D MUTTON". 175 

however, I should wall it to the bottom ; it is safer, and cheaper 
in the end. Brickbats, costing half price, will do just as well 
as whole bricks. One thousand of these, costing two dollars, 
(equal to five hundred bricks at half price) will lay the wall, A 
barrel of Louisville cement, two dollars, and two barrels of sand 
complete the bill. The bricks can be laid in clay mortar ; the 
cement is only needed for the inside plastering. 

In the lower portions of the cistern every brick (laid the long 
way, and the broken end chipped off somewhat square) must be 
jammed back firmly against the solid earth to resist the pressure 
of the water. The inner surface of the wall must be kept as 
even as possible to receive the plastering. 

Observing the bottle-shape (not the square-shouldered bottle, 
but the sloping), the builder will begin three or four feet below 
the surface to draw in his wall slowly, in such fashion as to 
form a mouth about eighteen inches across at the surface. A 
wall curving in so gently as this can be laid by any farmer ; a 
broad, bold arch would require a skilled mason. Bear in mind, 
the cistern under consideration is only five feet across at bot- 
tom. To build this kind of a neck, of course, the operator can 
no longer thrust the bricks back against the solid earth, as he 
did at the bottom. They must be chipped at the ends to bear 
firmly against each other, and laid flat, not with a pitch inward 
as they are when a mason is rounding an arch. Hence the last 
course at the surface is flat and does not need an iron collar to 
keep it from falling in. An earthenware elbow must be intro- 
duced near the top for the reception of the conductor ; also a 
waste pipe. The space between the solid earth and the brick 
wall, down to the line where the latter begins to curve in, will 
have to be puddled with clay or loam. 

After the brick-work has stood a few days the plastering can 
be done. One part of cement to two of sand is the rule. The 
helper will have to be trained to mix it of the right consistency. 
The idea that it has to be mixed in very small quantities at a 
time to keep it from setting is erroneous. All that is requisite 
is to keep the mass wetted and stirred. 

The top will be finished off with a square box of oak plank, a 
foot deep. Against this box the earth can be banked up to pro- 
tect the brick-work from injury by frost, and also afford a foun- 
dation upon which the pump can be placed. 

Watering Troughs. — I have tried various ways of watering 
sheep in the sheep-house, including plain, three-cornered wood- 




176 THE AMERICAN MEEIS"© 

en troughs, old iron sugar kettles, tubs, etc. ; but they all proved 
unsatisfactory. Sheep are so anxious to get the cleanest, fresh- 
est water, to drink at the fountain head or next to the spout, 
that they crowd each other hard ; any appliance has to be made 
solid to resist pressure, and of such shape 
and elevation that they cannot get into 
the water and foul it. All permanent 
troughs in the stable are open to objec- 
tion, in that they have to be low enough ^^ _ board cov- 
to accommodate sheep, and this makes ^^^^^ water-trough. 
them a constant receptacle for dung. One 

way of remedying this is a board nailed on slanting, in the 
fashion shown in figure 21. 

The board allows the sheep to reach over and drink, and at 
the same time keeps out the manure tolerably well. The board 
cover should be eight inches wide for mature sheep, reaching 
two inches over the edge of the trough. 

Wool-Room. — No permanent shearing-room is needed, unless, 
which is not desirable, it is also used as a wool-room. A shear- 
ing-table can be set up or hinged anywhere against the side of 
the stable, on trestles about two feet high, though some shearers 
prefer a table higher than this, while others want a lower one. 
A table four feet wide will accommodate a shearer for eveiy 
four feet of its length. After shearing is over this table can be 
turned back on its hinges and the trestles can be stored away 
for future use. 

In the wool-room will be found the press and sheep-hook, 
already described ; a small grocer's scales with a set of weights, 
and a light slat frame to be attached to one arm of the balances, 
for receiving the fleeces ; also a set of wooden letters and paint 
for marking the sheep ; shears ; toe-shears ; ear-tags ; medical 
and surgical appliances, etc. 

A very good table on which to spread and fold fleeces can be 
made by placing some old doors, or a table-top made for the 
purpose, on top of a hay-rack standing near the wool-press. 

Shhaeing-Cards. — To prevent false counting by the shearers, 
it is well for the farmer to provide himself with a set of shear- 
ing-cards. Let there be, for instance, fifty marked A, a like 
number marked B, etc. In the morning each shearer takes all 
the cards marked with a certain letter. Whenever he deposits 
a fleece on the table he throws down one of the cards upon it. 
The cards are taken up by the wool tier, or overseer, and at 
night they indicate the number of sheep shorn by each man. 



FOK WOOL AND MUTTOK. 177 

A Shearer's Table. — While it is not the purpose or province 
of this work to bring into notice proprietary articles of any 
kind, yet I deem it not amiss to briefly call attention to such 
labor-savin;^ inventions as are of undoubted utility to the flock- 
master. Such, for instance, is a "Self-adjusting Shearer's 
Table," of which it is said : " It holds a sheep in any desired 
position, so that the shearer stands on boLh feet and has the use 
of both hands, and the wool when shorn is never ' kicked ' or 
torn and is in the best possible condition for the wool box. The 
invention was made by a Mr. Addison, of Ohio. It is adjusted 
in a moment to any sized sheep, and the position of the sheep is 
changed by touching a spring. It will be specially ' the thing' 
for shearing the wrinkly, heavy-fleeced Merino, as the sheep is 
held in an easy position and the shearing quickly performed." 
I never saw this particular device, but have witnessed the oper- 
ations of one very similar. It consisted of a wooden bowl, in 
which the sheep was placed on its buttock and strapped to a 
light frame-work standing up at the proper angle for the sheep 
to rest in while bein-? shorn. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

WINTER MANAGEMENT. 

Yarding. — Perhaps the most vigorous and piquant defense of 
the loose-ranging system of wintering sheep, that has come to 
my notice, was one contributed to the Ohio Farmer by Mr. Simon 
Smith, of Harrison Co., Ohio, the owner of a flock of one hundred 
and fifty pure At wood Merinos. He says : '* The reason I don't 
house my sheep is because they must have exercise at will to keep 
them healthy, and must be exposed, not abused, to make the 
wool grow long. I do not grain them, because grain, if properly- 
fed, makes tlie fat too solid (except to butcher) for stock sheep. 
It also produces grease or gum in the fleece, which (especially if 
housed) excludes the air from the roots of the fibers, which 
tends to shorten the staple. Some think grain-fed sheep pro- 
duce more wool, when, in fact, four-fifths of the gain is grease. 
Sheep that are grained and housed will not hve out half their 
days. What I consider abuse is to confine them to filthy pas- 



178 THE AMERICAN MERIKO 

tures or force them to stand in a bleak wind, or impatiently to 
bleat at au empty rack, or gnaw the bottom of the salt box. I 
forgot to say that a sheep with a wrinkly, greasy or gummy 
coat cannot stand inclement weather." 

In another place he says : *' Experience has taught me that 
sheep will spread their own manure, trim their own tails, pro- 
vide their own blankets and make their own prognostications 
of the weather, if managed in accordance with nature." 

It is undoubtedly true that small flocks, even of full- blood 
Merinos, if kept on a tough sod, with bushes and bitter browse, 
and clumps of trees for a wind-break, with a moderate daily 
feed of corn, either shelled or broken one ear across another, 
will take the storms of winter with impunity and come through 
thriving, with red noses, long, clean wool, and healthy systems 
which will not scour a particle when the grass grows green in 
the spring. But with larger flocks, where the feeding of hay or 
fodder is necessary, the objection to the ranging system is that 
the sheep do not of their own accord regulate the matter of ex- 
ercise judiciously. On a warm day they will rove all day, and 
on a cold day not at all. If the fodder is thrown out to them in 
an open field they will wander about the field, coming to it 
three or four times a day and browsing a little while, then they 
are off again. On a veiy cold day they will stand in the lee of 
the shed or of the fence— if nothing better offers— and lose a 
great deal of time when they would be eating if the feed were 
close at hand, and in a place not exposed to the wind. The 
sheep is very irresolute about breaking away from a warm shel- 
tered place and setting out in search of feed. On an excessively 
cold day the sheep cannot be forced to take exercise, unless they 
are driven to water or something of that sort ; and it is not 
worth while to attempt it, especially if there has been a sudden 
change from mild weather, for they will seldem drink the first 
day after such a change, even if water is offered them in the 
shed. 

The summing up of the whole matter, therefore, is this : It 
is best to keep sheep in a yard sheltered by their shed, with a 
warm southern exposure. Let them have their regular time 
for exercise as much as for their grain ration or their hay. If 
snow continues on the ground a long time, so that they have no 
inducement to take exercise in search of grass, turn them into 
a corn-stubble from which the fodder has been hauled out and 
ricked. They will rove up and down in this and pick a large 
amount of " thimbles " from the stubs, no matter how weather- 



FOR WOOL Ais^D MUTTOis". 179 

beaten they may be, which they would not eat if given to them 
in the yard. A sheep is grateful for the privilege of picking up 
a portion of his living in his own way, nibbling about in all 
kinds of hidden nooks with his nimble prehensile lips ; and even 
after they have picked the stubs over twenty times, it will pay 
to turn them in again simply for the sake of the exercise. The 
great use of the system of yarding is that it allows the master 
to regulate the time and amount of exercise, and also secures 
more effectual alimentation. 

Winter Care of Lambs. — From autumn to winter, from grass 
to hay (which probably the young animal has never seen be- 
fore), the transition must be somewhat shaded off. I think it 
advisable to remove lambs from the pasture early enough (de- 
pending on the season) to leave some green feed in the field for 
them to be returned to a few hours a day for a week or a fort- 
night. It is far better to take them up in this way than to wait 
until a snow-storm has covered the grass beyond reach, for then 
the commencement of housing will be so abrupt as to be likely 
to produce colic or stretches. Turn them out in the morning, 
for a few minutes' airing, and sprinkle in their racks a little of 
the greenest, most aromatic hay at command. I like it as green 
as English breakfast tea for lambs. When turned back, they 
will eat the greater portion of it before noon, and then they 
may be driven afield for a few liours. 

Many writers argue that Indian coxn is too heating for sheep, 
and especially for lambs, asserting that it causes loss of wool, 
"pot disease," etc. It is undoubtedly too oily and heating a 
grain to be given in unlimited quantities to young sheep for 
months together. In regard to corn as a feed for mature fatten- 
ing flocks, I shall have more to say elsewhere ; in this place I 
shall only give my experience w4th lambs. Until about Janu- 
ary first I feed bran, oats and corn— two parts bran, one of oats, 
one of corn— all they will eat. Oats are a very unsatisfactory 
crop on our river bottoms, and about the time above mentioned 
we generally use up our small harvest of them. I soon take 
out the bran, also, and for the remainder of the season carry 
the flock through on corn alone — about three or four gallons a 
day to one hundred lambs. I do this, first, because corn is our 
one great staple, and, second, because, after many experiments, 
I have satisfied myself that it is a thoroughly good feed for 
lambs. I do not wish to be understood as asserting that com is 
better than other grains, or so good as oats. What I would say 
is that, where the farmer can grow corn to better advantage 



180 THE AMEEICAN MEEIXO 

than oats, and cannot exchange it conveniently, he can safely 
give it to lambs in about the quantities above indicated, without 
fearing any evil results at all, if he will observe the following 
precautions : Use the white corn (the yellow is better for hogs, 
being more oily), give the lambs constant access to salt and all 
they will drink of temperate water, and let them have two or 
three hours' exercise daily. 

Grain-Feed at Night. — It is not a good practice to give sheep 
grain early in the morning, unless they sleep out of doors and 
have an opportunity to get up and stir around briskly awhile 
before feeding. In a flock of sheep there will always be some 
that resemble certain persons — destitute of appetite in the morn- 
ing. If the grain ration is given out then they v\^ill not come at 
all, or so listlessly that they will not get a fair ]3roportion, and 
they will lose condition. I have found that in a flock of one 
hundred and fifty lambs, ten or twelve would scarcely touch 
grain in the morning, out at night not one would stand back. 

Watering Sheep in Winter. — I can hardly lay too much 
stress on the importance of looking well to the matter of w^ater- 
ing sheep in winter. " You can lead a horse to water, but you 
cannot make him drink." This adage would hardly be true of 
the sheep. It will drink after awhile. When a sheep comes 
out of the stable a trifle chilly, with its blood stagnant after 
twenty-four hours, quiet, it feels touchy, and it will sniff and 
sample here and there in a way which is aggravating to the 
shex)herd who is waiting on its motions. It may be fifteen 
minutes before it can suit itself. It may utterly refuse to drink, 
whereas, if it could go off and take a run of an hour or so, it 
would return and drink a surprising quantity. If that sheep 
had been hastily shut up by an impatient shepherd, it would 
have suffered before twenty-four hours elapsed, and would not 
have eaten as freely as it ought, and consequently would have 
begun to lose condition. Hence, the belief of so many flock- 
masters, that sheep " do not want water only about every other 
day." Chilly and slow-blooded as they are, from inaction, they 
cannot force themselves to swallow the ice-cold water oftener 
than that ; but if it were temperate they would gladly drink 
every day. Sheep fed freely on roots do not require so much 
water. 

Feed-Troughs. — The old-fashioned Y-shaped grain-troughs 
are objectionable because they allow the stronger sheep to thrust 
the grain along with their noses into heaps, so that they get 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 181 

more than the weaker ones, which need it most. All troughs 
ought to be flat-bottomed. I find the following dimensions very 
good : Sixteen feet lung, six inches wide, four inches deep. 
They must stand on blocks or supports about a foot high. I 
generally set them radiating from the door, like the spokes of a 
wheel, so that when the lambs run out they do not have to leap 
over troughs— an operation to which they are very prone at any 
rate, and one which fouls the troughs in muddy weather. I 
frequently htter the yard to prevent the same thing from occur- 
ring. The troughs may be set around the sides of the yard, 
but this reduces their capacity nearly one half. 

Sorting for Winter. — Sheep ought always to be divided into 
flocks, according to age, strength, sex, etc. Ewes should be by 
themselves, also the lambs, then the dry flocks may be parcelled 
out as y earlings, two-year-olds, etc. , though the weaker ones in 
each lot should drop back one year, A weakish yearling is as 
difficult to winter, requires as much care as a lamb, and should 
be thrown into the lamb flock. Last of all is what may be de- 
nominated the poor-house — a flock consisting of toothless old 
crones, inferior lambs, yearlings and others, which the flock- 
master had neglected to dispose of in the fall, and he must 
punish himself for this omission by nursing and coddling tUe 
flock of inferiors more carefully than the others. An inferior 
sheep in a large flock has a poor chance, indeed. It ought to 
receive more than the average ration, whereac it receives less. 
A sheep is a timid and defenseless animal at best, and when 
cowed by a few hard knocks from the masters of the flock, it 
presently stands back and goes off into a corner to die. 

Temporary Shelters. — A straw-shed, well built, is a good 
protection ; but poorly built, it is an utter nuisance. In a long 
rain the water percolates down through it and falls in drops on 
the backs of the sheep, staining the fleeces a patchy, clouded 
straw-color. It will continue to drip twenty-four hours, or 
longer, after the rain has ceased, and here and there a sheep 
will get wetter than it would have done in the storm itself. The 
bedding or bottom also becomes saturated, ferments and gives 
off ammonia, poisoning the air, and the wretched sheep, with 
stained icicles hanging from its wool, reeks with steam when it 
rises in the morning or perhaps tears out a lock of waol which 
was frozen to the ground, while the baneful ammoniacal exha- 
lation is laying the foundation for disease and a cotted fleece in 
the spring. If a straw roof is built not over eight or ten feet 



18'^ THE AMERICAK MERIXO 

wide and so high that the straw will be ten or twelve feet deep 
above it when fully settled, it will afford passable protection. A 
back or wind-break may be made by stacking the straw partly on 
the ground (though this is apt to settle unevenly and lean), 
or by constructing a barricade of rails and stakes with straw 
stuffed between. 

A temporary shed-roof may be built of boards, with a straw 
barricade or bundles of fodder standing on end for siding ; al- 
most any shelter which will exclude the snow will answer in 
the dry cold of winter ; but when a long rain comes on, or the 
frost is coming out of the ground in the spring (the time of year 
when the system of the sheep is most likely to break down un- 
der the debilitating approach of warm weather, and when it 
most needs a dry bottom to sleep on and a wholesome atmos- 
phere), these cheap roofs are apt to prove a failure, and leave 
the sheep in a miserable mud-hole. I speak from experience. 
The sheep had better sleep on a dry sodded mound without a 
straw overhead than to find themselves, at the break-up in 
March, left in a slum of manure and water. During the spring 
thaws there are days when not even the sight of growing grass 
would tempt the well-fed sheep, chewing its cad in a well-lit- 
tered house, high and dry on an artificial mound, with an 
atmosphere clean and sweet, to step out into the bottomless 
mud. It is in the saving of sheep in March that the shepherd 
reaps his reward for the building of the more expensive perma- 
nent structure. 

The Gain of Housing.— It is one of the most prevalent and 
persistent errors of the farmer, that sheep need housing less 
than any other domestic animal because they have a better 
natural covering. We are told by these disbelievers that sheep 
will stand quietly for hours in a rain when by moving ten feet 
they could get under cover. There are generally two reasons 
for this fact. First : The house is so foul with ammonia (though 
the flock-master, whose nostrils are several feet above the floor, 
may not perceive it) that they will suffer before they will enter 
it. Second : Unless the rain is violent, it takes it some time to 
penetrate to the skin of the animals and cause them inconveni- 
ence. An animal bearing a pelage of short thin hairs, though 
it experiences discomfort from the falling drops sooner than 
one which has a dense coat, is really better prepared to resist 
the hardships of outdoor, life than the other, for the reason that 
the water dries off sooner. In large cities the best horsemen 



FOR WOOL X^D MUTTON". 1S3 

have little machies for clipping horses ; and in the fall when 
their coat has grown thick and furry, they shear it off close to 
the hide. If a horse is driven hard and has a thick mass of hair 
on him to become saturated with perspiration, he is much more 
likely to take cold when put in tie stall than if he had a shorter 
coat, which would dry out sooner. 

While the sheep is not so hardy as it was in its primeval state, 
it is compelled, if allowed to remain out during the storms, to 
carry a burden of wet wool, five times as heavy as it would have 
had to carry when wild, and which is five times as long in dry- 
ing out. The cow or the horse, though degenerated from its 
ancestors in point of hardiness, has no greater coat of hair to 
carry about wet than they had. Therefore, I argue, the sheep 
needs shelter more than any other of the domesticated animals, 
and that for the very reason which some urge in excuse of their 
negligence in providing shelter — because it has a heavier coat to 
carry. A fleece weighing five pounds will, when on the sheep's 
back, probably hold ten pounds of water without dripping per- 
ceptibly. A man with a heavy ulster overcoat on might for the 
first half hour be almost oblivious to the fact that rain \^ as fall- 
ing on him ; but after he was wet through to the skin, if he was 
obliged to stand still, it is quite possible that he would, for the 
next twelve hours, rather have the overcoat off than on. The 
more a sheep becomes loaded down with water, the less it is in- 
clined to stir about and take the exercise which is needed to dry 
its coat and warm its blood. In our capricious American cli- 
mate a soaking rain is generally followed soon after by brisk 
winds and colder temperature. Every tyro in chemistry knows 
that the act of evaporation withdraws latent heat ; thrust the 
wet hand out of the window and it will grow cold faster and 
freeze much quicker than it would if dry. 

Cold is an enemy of life, and chills are always a loss. As 
Colonel F. D. Curtis forcibly says (in a communication to the 
Country Gentleman) : " It costs blood to fight chilli, and it takes 
food to make the blood, which is the current of life and bears 
with it heat, action and growth." External chills drive the 
blood in upon the viscera and produce congestion in greater or 
less degree, pneumonia, fever, colds in the head, etc. The 
farmer who suffers his sheep to get a wetting every few days 
through the winter, wonders why they are snufQing so much, 
with their nostrils constantly plugged up with disgusting accu- 
mulations of dried nmcus. He smears tar over their noses ; he 
holds them between his knees, pulls their tongues well out and 



184 THE AMERICAN MERIKO 

thrusts tar far back into their mouths to make sure of their 
swallowing it ! 

What they need is not tar on the roots of their tongues, but 
tar on the roof, dry footing and dry, wholesome atmosphere. 
They want plenty of warm red blood instead of tar. 

CoEN-FoDDER FOR Sheep. — If I were feeding cattle and sheep, 
and were limited to clear fodder and clear timothy bay, I should 
give the fodder to the sheep and the timothy to the cattle. That 
is, if the fodder had to be given out without cutting ; and I do 
not believe it pays to cut the coarse cornstalks of our Western 
river bottoms, after the first of January, at any rate. 

There is no operation about the farm in winter which I per- 
form with more satisfaction than that of giving fodder to my 
sheep. I have it in ricks about seventy-five feet long, disposed 
conveniently on two or three sides of the yard, so that it can be 
thrown over from the rick. After a week or two of practice, a 
flock of sheep, even yearlings, will pick the coarsest fodder very 
clean, if it is bright — cleaner than any other stock will. They 
consume, not only the husks, but the "thimbles" or sheaths, 
the tassels and a foot or two of the top of the stalk, especially 
if the weather is a little damp. That is to say, they leave noth- 
ing which would really pay for the labor of cutting. I have 
known a snug, tidy farmer winter a small flock of sheep entirely 
on the leavings which they could gather from the fodder after 
his cattle were done with it, supplemented by a small ration of 
grain. 

I confine my flocks in yards the greater portion of the day, 
and in a few days the stalks accumulate so as to form a good 
feeding-bed for cold, dry weather ; though I find it pays well to 
throw fodder, as well as hay, into slatted racks, in the best of 
weather. It. is necessary to look sharply after the manner in 
which the feeding is conducted. The feeder should be required 
either to move the racks every few days, or, better, to clean out 
the canes which liave been picked over, every morning before a 
fresh ration is given. To enable the sheep to pick fodder clean, 
only a thin layer should be thrown in at one time, just about 
enough to fill the rack up level with the bottom board ; then 
they will not pull it out and waste it. After a few hours another 
thin layer may be given. 

When wheat straw is given in conjunction with fodder (and 
I consider a ration of bright fodder with straw, cut before it is 
too ripe, decidedly preferable to timothy for sheep), the straw 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 185 

orts form a good packing material for the canes. The sheep 
should not be compelled to eat more than half the bulk of straw- 
given to them ; the remainder, when thrown out of the racks, 
is speedily "fulled up" with the canes by the constant tram- 
pling of the flock, and assists greatly in retaining the liquid 
manure, which would escape if only the corn-stalks were be- 
neath. When the sheep are turned out in the spring, a heavy 
coating of straw is thrown over the yard ; this retains moisture, 
prevents leaching, and insures the rotting of all the canes, so 
that they can be hauled out in the fall. 

In the Atlantic States, where the stalks are smaller than on 
the rich bottom-lands of the West, the best farmers now gener- 
ally cut them into lengths of an inch or less, and often steam 
them and mix with mill-feed. I shall have more to say of this 
in the chapter on " Feeding for Mutton." 

Cleaning out the Stables. — During the dry, cold weather of 
winter, a considerable body of manure may accumulate with- 
out detriment ; but the risk in this is, that when the thaw and 
break-up come, which wiU compel the doing of the work speed- 
ily, the mud is so deep that it is a great abuse, both to team 
and land, to haul out manure. The flocks will either have to 
swelter and sicken in the ammonia, or the team will have to be 
strained to do the work in half a foot or more of mud. Hence, 
it is best to make a general clearing out just before the winter 
breaks up, while the ground is frozen or there is snow. 

The reader will bear with my repeated recurrence to the 
necessity of the shepherd's knowing with absolute certainty 
whether there is a hurtful generation of ammonia going on or 
not. He should not allow a week to pass at any time through 
the winter without making actual test by the nostrils, at the 
elevation where the sheep are obliged to carry theirs, as to 
the condition of the atmosphere which they are compelled to 
inhale the greater part of their time. After the manure has 
been removed it is well to sprinkle the ground with lime, also 
with several inches of bedding as an absorbent of liquid manure 
and to prevent the manure from adhering to the ground. 

Making and Saving Manure.— I have my straw stack placed 
every season as close as possible to my main cluster of sheep 
yards, generally so close that the straw can be pitched directly 
from the stack into one of the yards. It is not desirable to let 
sheep run to the stack. The amount of chaff which lodges in 
their wool is no serious objection, for it is mostly expelled from 



186 THE AMEEICAN^ MERIKO 

the fleece before shearing time ; but sheep will bore up into the 
stack at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and they will soon 
get wholly atop of it, wasting the greater portion. 

A cluster of fodder ricks is placed on another side or other 
sides of the yards and given in conjunction with the straw to 
the dry flocks, for I wish every flock, except the lambs, to re- 
ceive at least one ration of fodder daily. We make a practice 
of shutting up our breeding ewes in the house every night, un- 
less the weather is unusually warm, so they have a ration of 
hay to lie to. But I never wish to feed fodder or straw inside 
of a house. In the first place, the straw orts thrown out of the 
racks serve admirably to pack closer the loose-lying cornstalks 
and make of them a better bed for the retention of the liquid 
manure ; and no farmer would think of attempting to manu- 
facture cornstalks into manure under a roof. In the second 
place, iDure sheep manure, deposited in winter under cover and 
daily trodden firm and solid, does not ferment ; or, if the lower 
strata do, the upper are so dense that no ammonia can rise 
through them ; and the sheep can and will sleep on such a bed, 
which is dry and almost dusty on the surface, all winter, with- 
out injury. But in the house where the hay orts are thrown 
out and mingle daily with the manure, the latter has to be re- 
moved two or three times during the winter on account of the 
fermentation and the escaping ammonia. For these reasons 
the dry flocks receive all their feed out-of-doors, and at night 
are left at liberty to sleep in or out of the house, as they choose. 
In the yard where fodder alone is given, straw is occasionally 
thrown to compact the bed against the wastage of liquid manure. 
I would not tolerate hogs in a sheep yard, nor is it necessary. 
It is remarkable how the constant trampling of even the light- 
footed sheep will full together and press down a bed of corn- 
stalks. They crack the flinty outer covering suflS.ciently to 
allow the urine to penetrate and be absorbed by the spongy 
pith. The addition of corn (about a bushel to the hundred head), 
or of oil-cake meal, or shorts to the ration, imparts richness to a 
manure already richer than anything else on the farm except 
the droppings in the hen house. From the time the flocks are 
turned away to grass until October or November these beds are 
left covered with straw to rot in the rain, during which process 
they will sink down six inches or more. True, there is a small 
amount leached out of the beds by the rain, particularly toward 
fall when they begin to lose their sponginess ; and a water-tight 
manure-pit placed to receive this drainage would doubtless be a 



FOR WOOL xiJq^D MUTTON-. 187 

good investment. But, as it is, from the yards and houses to- 
gether we secure about three hundred two-horse wagon loads of 
valuable manure per year, or somewhere near half a load to the 
sheep. 

The manure coming from the houses is hard and tough as old 
cavendish tobacco, and has to be grubbed uj) with a mattock. 
Plowed under eight or ten inches deej), this is a powerful stimu- 
lant to corn, which will show its effects for years afterward. 
It makes an excellent top-dressing for weak places in the 
meadows, but it has to be scattered on in winter and exposed 
to the frosts and rains two or three months, after which a man 
with a stout dung-fork can fine it without much difficulty. 

Sheep Losing Wool. — There will often be noticed a sheep 
whose wool is ragged along the sides, with little locks pulled 
out and hanging : sometimes long seams showing in the fleece 
where the wool has wholly parted from the skin on the surface 
of wrinkles and fallen olf. In searching for the causes of this 
loss of wool, the shepherd must first assure himself that there 
are no sharp edges, points, pins or nails about the racks or sides 
of the stable. Then let him watch the ragged-looking sheep 
and see if it is not addicted to the vice of "wool-biting." It is 
thought by many shepherds that this is caused by an eruption 
and itching of the skin, produced by ammouiacal vapors and the 
heat of fermentation in the manure. The following facts may 
be set down as established, respecting the habit of wool-biting : — 

1. Young sheep are seldom addicted to it. 

2. Sheep on grass never pull out their wool. 

3. Sheep fed in winter on laxative feeds, as fodder, roots, 
bran, etc., are less inclined to the habit than those kept exclu- 
sively on hay and corn. Sulphur in the salt mitigates, to some 
extent, its manifestations. 

Nevertheless, there are some sheep which, whether it is an 
idiosyncrasy with them, the result of a thin and sensitive skin, 
or a vice, are so addicted to wool-biting every winter that they 
ought to be dismissed from the farm. 

Where wool is seen to peel off from the outer surface of 
wrinkles, it may be accepted as evidence of chilling having 
taken place in those wrinkles, almost to the point of freezing. 
Wrinkles are little else than simple folds or reduplications of 
the skin ; they are ill supplied with the blood and warmth of 
the body, and if upon these conditions there supervenes a loss 
of condition in the autumn preceding, caused by excessive 



188 THE AMEEICAK MERIXO 

rains, slushy herbage, or short, frost-bitten grass, it is not sur- 
prising that the temperature falls so low in these remote ex- 
tremities as to destroy the life of the fibers. These, then, are 
cast off and leave the surface exposed. This is one of the evils 
attending wrinkly sheep. It can be prevented only by housing^ 
and blanketing, which, of course, would not be practicable with 
a large flock. 

Clouded Fleeces. — It is hardly necessary to say that if an 
attempt is made to house sheep it ought to be carried out con- 
sistently, for an animal housed awhile and then turned into the 
weather will presently look worse than the out-door flock. Most 
shepherds have probably noticed sheep, the fleeces of which 
-w-ere white on the neck, perhaps, while on the back they were 
yellowish, nankeen or saffron, and pasty-looking. 

Sheep which are more or less deprived of exercise, even though 
their quarters may be kept clean and the sheep themselves in 
good health, are liable to have this spotted appearance. It is 
caused by a lack of vigor in the circulation of the blood, which 
latter is necessary to cause the proper liquefaction and equal 
diffusion of the yolky secretion throughout the fleece and to the 
extremities of the fibers. If the flock is exposed to the rain at 
aJl, and the fleeces are somewhat open and loose they are apt to 
part along the back, allowing the water to reach the spinal 
region sooner than it does any other portion of the frame. The 
wool fibers on the back are perpendicular and tend to conduct 
the moisture inward to the skin, while on the rest of the body 
they are more or less sloping and convey it away. 

Necessity for Grain. — Some excellent flock-masters keep 
their sheep, even their breeding ewes, all winter without grain. 
Others, equally as good, do not begin to give grain until Febru- 
ary or March. Unless the hay is exceptionally bright and fine, 
it is better to give a little grain all winter, though less is required 
in midwinter than at the breaking-up, when the sheep's appe- 
tite is rendered capricious by the increasing warmth. A little 
grain throughout the winter gives the sheep heart and thrift ; 
it win consume its rough feed with less waste. A sheep that 
has fallen off through the winter, and is suddenly put on a ration 
of corn in March, is liable to lose its fleece, or a part of it. With 
the sheep, above all other domestic animals, it is necessary that 
the farmer should bear a steady hand all the year round. 

Snow-Eaters. — There will nearly always be some few sheep, 
especially in a flock of lambs, that have a depraved appetite for 



FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTON. 389 

snow, and will not drink water if snow is obtainable. It is a 
habit as harmful to the victim of it as that of " wind-sucking " 
in a horse. I have thought, sometimes, that lambs acquired it 
from their dread of touching water which was ice-cold, when 
they were doubled up and shivering with cold themselves. 
With some sheep it becomes a confirmed habit, continued from 
year to year, and the observing flock-master will notice that the 
snow-eaters are the poorest of the flock. The remedy is obvi- 
ous : Provide an abundance of temperate water and allow am- 
ple time for every sheep to drink, warming them up beforehand 
with exercise, if necessary ; and either keep them out of the 
snow or drive them over it until it is all trodden down and 
dirty. 



C H A PTEE XIX. 
FEEDING FOR MUTTON. 

Merino Mutton. — We are indebted to our mother-country, 
England, for a great many moss-grown ideas and prepossessions. 
and not the least among these is the belief that the coarser and 
lighter the fleece on the sheep the better the mutton — this, of 
course, within reasonable limits. This belief has made a lodg- 
ment in our great Eastern cities, and from them it is passed on, 
at second or third hand, to our wool-growers in the West. The 
Merino has never been fairly tested by the mutton-eaters of the 
world, because it is, in its paramount function, a wool-bearing 
animal, and is not usually slaughtered for mutton until it has 
passed its prime. The only fair test would be one instituted 
between a Merino lamb and a Southdown lamb. 

For all-winter feeding. Merinos are best ; and wethers better 
than ewes, as there is a large discount on the latter. For an 
early winter market, probably heavy coarse-wooled sheep are 
preferable. The superiority of the fine-wools as feeding sheep 
in general, consists in this, that if the market for mutton is not 
brisk during the winter and spring they can be carried over, 
shorn early and sold as clipped sheep, bringing almost as much, 
shorn, as they would have commanded in the winter, wool and 
aU. 

Merinos as Feeding Sheep.— In the letter referred to below. 



190 THE AMEKICAN MERIE^O 

Mr. Isaac H. Frank, of Lake, Stark County, Ohio, who feed's 
several hundred sheep every winter, says : "In the first place, 
what kind of sheep are most profitable for fattening ? Certainly 
those which bring the highest price in the New York market. 
Lambs sell always for more than sheep, and prime wethers sell 
better then ewes. Blood don't make 'much difference if the ani- 
mal is good size, fat, smooth, desirable wool and trim, but the 
Southdown stands at the head." 

I have italicized the words bearing particularly on the subject 
of breed. 

Next, I will present an extract from the " Eeport of the Onta- 
rio (Canada) ^Agricultural College," on a series of feeding experi- 
ments conducted during the years 1882-3 : " There is a remark- 
able uniformity in the annual value of wool and mutton from 
the grades of Cots wold, Leicester, Merino, Oxforddown and 
Southdown, resulting from differences in weight and value of 
both products." 

In a conversation I had, in August, 1884, with Mr. W. M. 
Conner, yard-master for seven years of the sheep department of 
the Union Stock Yards of Cincinnati, I asked him : " What is 
the best mutton-sheep brought to Cincinnati ? " To this he re- 
plied : " The Southdown." In reply to the question as to what 
held the second rank, he said : "The Merino." He continued : 
"I mean mature mutton. For early lambs, of course, the 
Merino ranks below the Down and the Cotswold. This is not 
because the mutton is inferior in itself ; Merino mutton, when 
equally fat, is as good as any in the world — indeed, I am not 
certain but it is finer-grained than any other — but the point is 
to get your mutton fat." 

"You never have Merino lambs brought to market, I pre- 
sume ? " 

" Oh, yes, we have, sometimes ; not often. They sell a little 
under the coarse-wool lambs — not, as I said before, because the 
mutton is inferior, but because the pelt is smaller and the 
butcher does not realize as much from the wool." 

"Then I am to understand you as meaning that the main 
point of the English breeds is their precocity ; that is, they put 
so much more flesh and fat on the carcass, and wool on the pelt, 
at an extreme early age ? Is that it ? " 

" That is the point. They do their best work the first year of 
their lives." 

*' But for mature mutton you admit that the Merino is equal 
to them ? " 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTO"N^. 191 

"Not equal to the Southdown, but better than anything else, 
as I said before." 

" What do you find to be the best feeding sheep ? " 

" There is nothing better than a bunch of nice Merino wethers 
for winter feeding. They herd better, in larger flocks ; they 
hold fat better in the spring. If it were not for the Ohio Meri- 
nos we would have no mutton at all in the spring in Cincinnati. 
They come on in the nick of time all along in late winter and 
early spring, before the Kentucky early lambs begin to come to 
market." 

Mr. W. D. Crout, of Wauseon, Fulton County, Ohio, who 
feeds for market from fifty to one hundred sheep every year, 
in a letter to the Ohio Farmer, says of Merinos : "I feed dif- 
ferent classes of sheep almost every winter, and find that no 
other kind take to feed so kindly and fatten so rapidly, and 
have habits of quietude equal to them. Neither can I ob- 
tain so ready a market the last half of the winter, or any time 
much past the holidays. If I have long-wooled sheep to feed, I 
invariably turn them off early in the winter, but I believe I 
have never been fortunate enough to escape having some culls 
from coarse sheep. Do not understand me that Merinos are 
entirely free from this, but I do claim that they are less liable." 

In conversations with me on this subject, Messrs. Miles Stacy, 
Jacob Dearth and Elvin MiUer, all of Washington County, Ohio, 
and all of them experienced feeders, have repeatedly stated that 
for the Baltimore market, for winter corn-fed mutton, they pre- 
fer good straight Merino grade wethers to those of any other 
breed. 

The views of some of the above quoted witnesses may be con- 
sidered slightly open to criticism as being influenced by local 
fashions and predilections ; but the testimony of the Canada 
Agricultural College and the Cincinnati yard-master is entitled 
to be accepted as entirely impartial. 

When to Feed. — An all-winter cramming on grain is unprof- 
itable with any kind of stock, especially with sheep. Equally 
true is it that to allow any fattening animal (or store animal 
either, for that matter), to get on the down grade for a single 
day is a double loss. I have had some experience in feeding 
Merino wethers for the shambles, and I find that the most prof- 
itable method to pursue is, when practicable, to keep the flock 
running on a stiff old sod or meadow rowen (when on rich 
river bottoms), until well along in February, making, of course, 



192 THE ameeica:n" mekiko 

proper provision of housing in inclement weather, with enough, 
grain — say, a bushel of shelled corn per hundred a day — to 
make up for any deficiency in the frozen grass, and keep the 
flock gaining a little. This plan of preparation operates very 
much on the same principle that a clover field does on a bunch 
of hogs through the summer, keeping them loose in the bowels, 
growing m flesh and fitting them for the six weeks or two 
months cramming with grain in autumn. 

Most farmers who carry, through the winter, a bunch of feed- 
ing sheep, do so with the expectation of selling the wool 
before grass comes. Hence, I have found that there is an inter- 
val between the strictly grain fed and the purely gTass fattened 
flocks, coming in the month of April or May, when sheep will 
generally sell to best advantage. The wool market has been 
opened by that time, and yet has not been subjected to the 
"bear" influences of the regular spring clip coming later. 
Local manufacturers are about that time beginning to look 
about briskly for small stocks to start on, not having the capital 
to hold over a supi^ly of wool through the winter, and not wish- 
ing to wait for the regular cHp. There is also about this time a 
sort of interregnum in the beef market. 

Manner and Material. — As to the manner of feeding and 
the material given, there are three points of great importance. 

1. Sheep should be fed with the utmost regularity. 

2. Though fond of variety, and requiring it for an attainment 
of the best results, feeding sheep resent a sudden change to an 
unaccustomed feed stuff. 

3. Hence, combination of feeds is better than change. 
Supposing the flock to have been on the range until the 1st or 

15th of February, on a ration of a bushel of shelled corn per 
day, we would now yard them, and set about conducting them 
up to the regimen on which they are to finish off the fattening 
process. If accustomed to it, they may be put on corn fodder 
once a day for a n^onth with great advantage, but after the 
middle of March, fodder begins to be distasteful, and is not so 
well relished by any stock. I give one liundred mature sheep 
twelve to eighteen bundles of fodder dui-ing the forenoon, gen- 
erally in two feeds in slatted racks. A sprinkle of bright wheat 
straw or chaff may be given at noon ; at night, all they will eat 
clean dui'ing the night of clover hay, Hungarian, June grass or 
Timothy (I name them here in the order of my preference). 
If it has not been found convenient to let them run on the 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOI^. 193 

range, the best substitute for it will be fodder and sti-aw, or 
clover hay and straw ; though it is well to reserve enough clover 
to give, toward the end of the yarding season, in conjunction 
with the heavy grain feed, as the best coarse, cooling distender 
for the heated stomach. 

A good grain feed for fattening sheep is shelled corn, one- 
half ; barley or rye, one-quarter ; oats, one-quarter ; but to the 
majority of farmers perhaps com is the most available feed. 
I do not think, after many trials, that it is profitable to cmsh 
grain of any kind for sheep, much less the cob with the corn; 
the cob being, in my opinion, nOt only useless as a feed, but a 
positive damage. 

It is wasteful to throw out corn unhusked, as some Western 
feeders are accustomed to do. There is too much of the grain 
to the amount of leaves, and, besides that, I never succeeded in 
feeding unhusked corn to sheep in any way in wliich they 
would not, before they managed to get the corn stripped and 
shelled, waste a good deal of the foliage. Some sheep are a 
great deal more expert and vigorous than others in husking and 
shelling the ears and get more than their share. In short, 
there is every reason for husking corn before it is given to sheep, 
and none (of any considerable value), in favor of giving it out 
unhusked. 

As to oil-cake meal, or cotton-seed, most sheep are not accus- 
tomed to either before they are penned up to fatten, and they 
must be broken to them with caution. Sheep are fond of va- 
riety, but they want that variety to consist of articles to which 
they are accustomed. If the flock-master's sheep are used to 
oil meal, by all means let him give them some, perhaps a daily 
ration of it, during the fattening process. But if not, he must 
proceed with caution in breaking them to it. Let it be given 
in very small quantities at first, not over a tablespoonful per 
head, mixed with four or five times its bulk of wheat bran or 
some other coarse ground feed to which they are accustomed ; 
and then let the proportion of oil meal be increased until it 
forms one-half, three-fourths, or even the entire feed, if they 
are found to relish the article, which they undoubtedly will. 
But the limit with this rich feed stuff is easily reached ; it will 
not do to go beyond a few ounces per head, according to the 
size of the sheep. 

If shelled corn alone is given, it can be so dispensed as not 
to injure the sheep at all, though it requires great watchfulness 
and good judgment to give fattening sheep all the corn they 



194 THE AMERICAN MERIlJfO 

will eat without doing them serious mischief. If, by a trifling 
negligence on the part of the feeder, they get a little " off their 
feed," one or more of them will vomit up com about the shed. 

From the time the flock is put into the yard to begin the 
fattening process, it should be nearly or quite a month before 
the ration of shelled corn is increased up to then- full capacity 
to consume. An increase of two quarts a day will carry the 
feed in that time from one bushel up to three per day ; and 
that is about as much as one hundred Merino wethers can be 
induced to eat, with an abundance of clover hay. It is best to 
divide this amount into three feeds, and every feed should be 
given under the eye of the master himself. If, on account of 
warm, muggy weather or other reason, the most of the sheep 
run away from the grain-troughs before the corn is all eaten up, 
the remainder ought to be at once chased out of the yard and 
the residue of corn removed, else a few wiU linger and eat too 
much. 

The yard ought to be kept well httered ; the heated condition 
of the sheep and the strong manure getting into the clefts of 
their feet induce "scald-foot." Once a week all limping ones 
should be caught, their feet examined, pared clean, and a little 
finely powdered blue vitriol sprinkled in the cleft. Of course, 
the judicious flock-master will supply plenty of water ; and 
constant access to salt, in which one-tenth or one-twelfth of 
copperas has been mixed, is beneficial. 

As soon as the grass is sufliciently grown to carry stock — 
from April 5th to 12th, according to latitude — the flock may be 
turned on it, after being tagged, and the grain ration reduced 
to a bushel per day. But they ought still to be yarded every 
night, and a little very tempting hay sprinkled in the racks and 
brined (all other salt being withheld). If they are not, by this 
means, or some other, induced to eat a little hay, the grass 
makes their teeth sore, aud they wiU not eat the grain as they 
should. 

Methods of a Noted Feeder.— Mr. J. H. Frank, already 
mentioned, feeds for market from five hundred to one thou- 
sand sheep yearly. His bam (fig. 22) is one hundred and forty by 
forty-five feet without the wing — has no fioor except the tamped 
clay ; the sides consist mostly of doors, so that it can be en- 
tered with teams at any place, for the storing of grain or hay, 
or the removal of manure. It is used in summer as a barrack 
for grain ; this being threshed out early in the fall, leaves the 



FOR WOOL AN"D MUTTOK- 



195 



space ready for the sheep when winter approaches. I copy 
(and partly condense) Mr, Frank's account in the Ohio Farmer : 
" The pens are formed by the racks and a double line of fence 
(the latter making the feeding aisle) ; all these are removed in 
the spring when the manure is hauled out. They are stored in 
shelter during the summer until after threshing, when they are 
replaced ready for sheep. At the south end of the barn on 
either side of the aisle we place half -racks, D, D, figure 23, 
and ten feet farther up, a rack, B, fifteen feet long, with one 
end against the fence at the aisle, which leaves a passage for 
the sheep to pass over to the other side. Then ten feet farther 
up we place another rack, B, which extends from the side of 
the bam to the tank, making a pen twenty feet square. Then 
on each side of the aisle the same arrangement of racks is con- 
tinued until we have the barn partitioned off into eight pens — 
four on each side. At the north end of the barn we put our 




Fig. 22.— MR. FRANK'S SHEEP BASS, 



hay, and as fast as it is fed we fill up the space with pens, so 
that by spring we have more pens. An empty space is left, 
however, between the hay and pens for throwing down hay, 
driving in sheep, etc. The racks are so made, that they are 
used both for feeding hay and grain, as shown in figure 24. 
H, shows trough for feeding grain, and K the hay-rack. It 
can be closed, as shown in figure 25, for sweeping and putting 
in grain, as the wings keep the sheep away until the grain is 
evenly scattered in the trough, when the wings are turned and 
all the sheej) come up at once'. These are by far the most con- 
venient) sheep racks that have come under our notice, and I 
doubt whether there is another rack near its equal for cleanli- 
ness, convenience and saving of both hay and grain. 

" Now we do not wish to be understood as indicating that it 
requires a bam and racks just like ours to make a success of 
feeding, but we think ours are excellent, and if the genius o^ 



196 



THE AMEKICAIS' MERIXO 



the feeder can find a better way or method, we would be 
pleased enough to foUow his plan. 

" We take it is an undisputable fact that whatever adds to the 
comfort of the sheep, will add to the profit of the feeder. The 
sheep must be kept quiet. No dogs, cattle or boys should be 
allowed to chase or worry them, so that they can eat and lie 




1 al TTIl 

"re DING Arsi ^ 



Fig. 23. — GROUND PLAIT OF MK. FKANK'S BAEN. 

down unmolested until they again wish to eat or drink. Pure 
air is one of the essentials. A stable full of foul odors, damp 
and dirty, cannot be a place suitable for keeping an animal as 
cleanly as is the sheep. We secure fresh air by opening any or 
aU of the double doors, A, A, in figure 23. 

' ' FigTire 24 represents the hay-rack and feed-trough combined, 
with the wings, W, W, turned in and buttoned fast, giving the 
sheep access to the feed-trough, which runs along at the bottom 
of each wing. There is a raised board walk along the middle, 
between the troughs, on which the feeder walks while pouring 




OPEN. 



grain into the troughs. While the wings are turned in this way, 
they also constitute the sloping sides of the hay-rack, from which 
the sheep pull out the hay through a four-inch crack at the bot- 
tom. Figui'e 25 shows the wings turned perpendicularly and 
fastened, excluding the sheep from the troughs while the grain 
is being poured in. Under no circumstances must the sheep get 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOi^. 



197 



wet, for the wool requires a long time for drying, and makes 
the animal cold and uncomfortable. Too much can not be 
said about cleanliness. Good bedding must be secured, and re- 
moved whenever the sheep have no clean, nice and dry place in 
which to lie down. The racks and troughs should always be 
swept perfectly clean before either hay or grain is put in them. 
Do this always. Another requisite is pure water. The water 
tank is liable to be fouled by droppings or particles of feed fall- 
ing into the water. The tanks should be emptied often and 
rinsed oat, so that the water is clear, vsweet and clean, 

" The water must be convenient so that the sheep need not go 
any distan?.e to secure it. They will eat a few mouthfuls, then 
drink a little, go and eat, and so on until they are satisfied, 
when they lie down and chew their cuds. If the sheep must 
go into the storm or into mud or wet, or a little distance, they 
often do without water rather than go and get it. The water 
should be kept so warm that it does not freeze, as they will not 




Fig. 35. — FEED BACK, CLOSED. 



drink enough to make them thrive well if too cold, and besides, 
it requires feed to warm the ice water. I have often seen lots of 
sheep which were well taken care of in all respects, but failed 
to do well because they were not well supplied with pure water. 
'' For the best results, sheep should not be kept in large lots, 
and those of a size should be kept together, as the smaller ones 
are crowded back by the larger ones, and knocked about so that 
they do not thrive as well. Hence, the small pens, twenty by 
twenty feet, as shown in figure 23. If I wished to do the very 
best with a sheep, I think I would put it into a stall by itself, 
as we feed cattle and horses. The nearer we approach this the 
better, and it would be more profitable to put sheep into smaller 
pens than ours, if convenient. Ours hold from forty-five to 
fifty-five, according to size, with comfort. Care must be taken 
not to crowd them too much. Our sheep never leave the pens 
save when carried to market, and we find they do much better 
than if they have the range of a bam-yard, or even a special yard 



198 THE AMEBIC AN MERINO 

made for them. We feed a variety of grains, and mix them. 
Corn ground in the ear, oats, sometimes wheat screenings, and 
always middlings and bran. We have fed some linseed meal ; 
thmk it very good, but have not tested it so as to speak authori- 
tatively on the matter. We grind our corn because it is easier 
digested, and it requires longer time for the sheep to eat it, and 
each has a better chance to get its share of the meal. Bran is 
of prime importance, we find." Mr. Frank gives the following 
as his rule for regulating the quantity of feed : " Begin in the 
fall with a small amount ; increase gradually until the amount 
is reached which they eat up clean, and no more. They will 
eat a little more in cold than in warm weather. 

" We feed clover hay exclusively, and find it far superior to 
any other. If timothy hay must be fed, let it be to the old 
sheep, for lambs will not do well on it. We feed all the hay 
that they will eat without wasting. Flocks are often fed so 
much that they waste enough to bed them, which is no advan- 
tage to the sheep, but wasteful and extravagant. Cut the clover 
before it is very ripe, as it is better relished and has more nutri- 
ment in it. We often cut clover on our wheat stubbles, and 
find that sheep Hke it better than any other. 

" Eegularity in feeding is very necessary. Sheep should be 
fed grain and hay twice each day, and at the same hour as 
nearly as possible. Salt is kept in a box in each pen, so that the 
sheep can get it whenever they want it. Now to recapitulate : 

" 1st. Select lambs or good wethers. 

'* 2d. Confine in close quarters and small lots. 

*'3d. Cleanliness. 

" 4th. Keep sheep quiet. 

" 5lh. Pure air. 

*' 6th. Good shelter. 

" 7th. Pure water near at hand. 

" 8th. Variety of ground grains, with bran and salt. 

"9th. Clover hay. 

" 10th. Eegularity of feeding." 

It will be seen from the above, that Mr. Frank's system con- 
templates an all-winter cramming on grain, and a rigid confine- 
ment of the flock to the pens throughout. My experience has 
been had on river bottoms ; and on these the rich rowen of low 
meadows will, in an open winter, carry a flock of fat wethers 
far into the winter, with no more corn than above mentioned. 
But where the feeder has an abundance of clover hay, roots or 
corn-fodder, as a coohng laxative diet and a corrective to the 



FOR WOOL AN"D MUTTOK. 199 

grain, the feeding term may extend through the whole winter 
with profit, and the sheep may be closely housed. 

Importance of Quiet. — Mr. Frank's remarks on this subject 
are just and deserving of special attention. All dogs should be 
kept out of sight and hearing. Not even shepherd dogs should 
be allowed about the pens where sheep are fattening. No sheep, 
unless mingling familiarly with a dog every day of their lives, 
will become so accustomed to him as not to be distui'bed by his 
approach. The greater the quiet, the more rapid will be the gain 
in flesh. To this end there should not even be a change in pens 
or troughs or the feeders during the winter. The same person 
should take care of them in the same place throughout. 

Variety of Feed. — Many good feeders, including the cele- 
brated John Johnston, give sheep no other rough feed than straw 
for considerable periods of time. I have myself done so through 
the whole period of feeding, except the last six weeks or such a 
matter. For a feeder who buys all his material this would not 
be advisable (though it would be good policy to invest a small 
amount of money in green, bright straw, oat or wheat, rather 
than to purchase hay exclusively) ; but it might be profitable 
for a farmer who has a large amount of straw on hand, and who 
also wishes to manufacture manure on a large scale, to give it 
to fattening sheep, early in the winter, very hberally. Sheep 
fed very highly on grain will consume with relish the coarse 
stuff, which a flock subsisting almost entirely on hay would re- 
ject. Hay mixed with bitter weeds or other trash may be given 
in occasional feeds to fattening sheep with evident advantage. 

In warm, muggy weather, if the flock are rather mincing 
over their corn or corn-meal, it is well to mix a portion of oats 
with it, or give oats exclusively for a few days. 

Timothy is too binding for an animal whose system tends so 
easily to fever and constipation as does that of the sheep. Al- 
most any kind of straw, except buckwheat (which is apt to 
poison the lips), is better as a coarse feed for fattening sheep 
than clear timothy. In fact, there is no kind of hay, except 
clover, which is as good, unmixed, as the same would be with 
a judicious alternation with straw. 

Cleanliness. — No other domestic animal is so easily disgusted 
with its feed by mustiness, dirt, foul odors, etc., as is the sheep. 
The breath of the animal itself soon renders its feed distasteful 
to it, and for this reason it might not Inaptly be set down as a 
maxim that no feed should be placed before it which it will not 



200 THE AMEEICAl^ MEEIIirO 

consume within an hour. The least taint in the water-trough 
is offensive to this most cleanly and fastidious animal ; it will 
go hours without water, to the point of actual suffering, rather 
than drink that which is polluted. Hence, the troughs and ves- 
sels must be kept clean, and the sheep which are observed to be 
dainty must have a fair allowance of time to find such place in 
the water-trough as shall suit their capricious appetites. 

A Device to Keep Troughs Clean. — It is often urged as a 
sufficient argument against feed-troughs inside the stable, that 
it is impossible to have them in order without cleaning them out 
at every feeding-time. To obviate this troublesome task, the 
feeder may set the troughs around the sides of the building, 
from four to six inches too high for sheep to reach them ; then 
put under them a piece of timber, or a bench, upon which they 
can step with their forefeet, but too narrow for them to stand 
on with all fours. This will keep all dung out of the troughs. 



CHAPTER XX. 

FROM HAY TO GEASS. 

I have before made some remarks on the importance of turn- 
ing the sheep afield frequently during the winter, at least when 
the ground is bare. But as soon as the grass begins togrow, 
even a little, upon the approach of spring, it will be necessary 
to exercise caution. The old grass which they get during the 
winter, the long tufts of rowen mixed about equally with dead 
grass and lurking under bushes or briers on some north hillside, 
which the sheep neglected during the summer, has a different 
effect on them from that of the young growth. The latter is 
washy, and scours them, and ' ' takes away their appetites," as the 
old farmers say. During the winter I frequently let my sheep 
out twice a week, if the weather is favorable ; and I find no in- 
jurious result from it, even though they remain on the grass aH 
day and fill themselves. In fact, I generally give them only 
their grain rations on these days and no coarse feed at all. Nor 
do I find their appetites, the following morning, anywise dulled 
for their hay or fodder. But after the grass starts a little this 
will not answer. If they are left on it even half an hour, the 



FOR WOOL AIsTD MUTTOK. 201 

.next day they will mince over their dry feed and not consume 
a quarter of it. They are purged and they stand with hollow 
bellies and look through the gate all day long. They must now 
be restrained in their run on the grass ; it must be greatly cur- 
tailed. The last two or three weeks, or month, before turning 
them out to pasture, I do not suffer them to run on grass more 
than a quarter as much as they do through the winter. Fifteen 
or twenty minutes a day, or say while you are putting a fresh 
feed into the racks, is long enough ; and with this restriction, 
the privilege may be granted them every day. I do not lengthen 
the time at all up to the very last day of feeding them on dry 
feerd. Then catch and tag the flock, shorten the long hoofs (it 
is well to attend to both these matters several days beforehand, 
on rainy days, or at any other convenient time), and let all go. 

Hoove. — I find that suckling ewes are more liable to this 
trouble than any other class of sheep. The insatiable appetite 
created by the constant drain on the system during lactation, is 
apt to make them overeat. It is dangerous to turn ewes and 
lambs on a field of clover (white or red) until they have been 
long enough on grass to get their bowels toned up, their ali- 
mentary systems recovered from the winter torpor. Hoove is 
caused, primarily, by a lack of mucus, superinduced by tlie dry 
feed of winter. Mucus is needed to assist the peristaltic action 
of the stomach aud bowels. This it is which makes necessary 
the gradual wonting of the sheep to the more succulent feed of 
spring. Sheep ought never to be turned upon clover when it is 
wet, and very carefully at all times, until it is in blossom, unless 
they have been thoroughly prepared for the great change by 
plenty of soft feed, roots, bran mashes, green rye, etc. 

A suckling ewe wdll succumb under hoove more easily than a 
cow ; her muscular and vascular system is frailer. When fer- 
mentation has already set in, and the paunch is distressfully 
distended with gas, a teaspoonful of turpentine may be admin- 
istered in a little cold water. A two-ounce dose of Epsom salts, 
with ginger and gentian, should be given as a preventive of its 
recurrence. 

Depasturing Wheat with Sheep.— It is when spring has 
fully set in that the uses of depasturing appear. The ground is 
then seamed with frost cracks, puffy ; the wheat tufts are more 
or less thrown up ; the earth needs to be compressed and packed 
about the roots. Cattle make deep foot tracks, with the wheat 
thrust down to the bottom of tkem ; but sheep pack the surface 



202 THE AMERICAI^ MERII^O 

gently an inch and a haK or two inches deep with their innu- 
merable tracks, covering it all over (I have found that, even 
when they run on naked ground during a winter thaw, they do 
not pack it over two inches). 

Sheep are very peculiar and capricious in their way of graz- 
ing growing grain. They do not fancy it much at best, and 
they avoid all long stalks, seeking to bite close to the ground. 
I have seen them depasture a field of rye in a singular, patchy 
way — here a spot a rod or so square eaten to the very ground, 
while close at hand is another with the rye heading out three 
feet in air, never having been touched. This happens when 
they have too much, or are allowed to stay on it too long at a 
time. 

If permitted to graze wheat in this fashion, it would work 
mischief. When it is seen that they are inclined to do so, they 
must be broken up, herded, pushed about, not allowed to settle 
down on their favorite spots and gnaw them down to the earth. 
The rank patches, which need depasturing most, they will graze 
least, if they are not somewhat controlled. 

They ought not to be turned into a wheat field in the spring 
until it is dry and settled enough to be fit for harrowing — dry 
enough to be a little crumbly. If there comes a sudden March 
freeze, followed by a thaw, I do not allow them to return to it 
for a few days. 

It is not a good practice to allow a large flock of sheep to run 
into and out of a wheat field a number of days at the same place. 
If a flock of young sheep can be turned on at the proper time 
and kept in the field day and night until their work is done, or 
turned in at a different place every day, better results will be 
accomphshed. I turn them off before the wheat begins to joint. 

The effects of depasturing wheat are: That the amount of foli- 
age IS reduced, the tufts are rendered lower and more stocky, 
the whole field has a cleaner, more open and more even appear- 
ance. There is a freer circulation of air through the growing 
grain, and a reduced tendency to rust. A judicious depasturing 
hardens and toughens it up. This is my experience in the lati- 
tude of Southern Ohio. Further north it would probably seldom 
be the case that sheep would be beneficial to green wheat. 



FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTOIfT. 203 

CHAPTER XXI. 
FODDERS FOR SHEEP. 

Red Clover. — This is the best of all foKage plants for sheep- 
feed, if well cured ; and the curing and saving of it are so apt 
to be ill-done (making it one of the poorest of fodders), that a 
few directions, founded on experience, will not come amiss to 
the young shepherd. If the soil is very rich, clover is apt to 
grow coarse and lodge. To render it fine enough for sheep it is 
best to sow it thick, say one and a half gallons to the acre (one 
gallon on thinner land). A gallon of timothy seed per acre, 
sown the preceding fall, is a good addition ; the timothy will 
assist the clover to stand up and make it finer. 

When the earliest clover blossoms have turned brown it is time 
to set about the cutting, though it may be well to delay a few 
days if the barometer does not indicate settled weather. If 
there is a fair promise of three or four days of clear weather, 
and help is abundant, five or six acres may safely be cut down 
at once ; this should be done in the afternoon. A half day's 
steady sunshine will wilt it sufficiently, if the thick bunches at 
the corners of the lands are shaken out a little in the morning. 
The farmer should twist a handful of it to see how much moist- 
ure the stalks contain. If no sap can be wrung out of them, he 
may proceed to rake it into windrows, and leave these over 
night, unless rain is threatening. If so, it should be made up 
into cocks, about as high as a man's head, and rather slender. 
On the third day, as soon as the sun has thoroughly dried the 
hay, the cocks (or windrows) should be turned, bottom-side up, 
and, perhaps, the lower half of each cock (now the upper half) 
pulled aside, thus dividing it into two equal portions. At night 
cock up again, in larger cocks if desired. On the fourth day, 
as soon as the dew is off, haul the hay in without opening the 
cocks. 

In catching weather, the farmer will have to vary this pro- 
gramme to suit circumstances ; but on no account should clover 
hay be hauled in when very damp, especially if damp from ex- 
traneous moisture. Better let it stand several days, thrusting 
the arm into the cocks occasionally to see if they are heating. 
If they are getting a trifle warm at the bottom and there is 
not time between showers to dry them out and haul in, build 



204 THE AMESICAK MEEIKO 

the cocks over, putting the bottom on top, handling carefully, 
running them up high and sharp to shed rain. 

Salt should never be sprinkled over hay of any kind when it 
is mowed away ; it attracts moisture and discolors the hay. 
Air-slaked lime is good ; it may be put on in almost any quan- 
tity without rendering the hay distasteful to sheep. If the 
clover is pretty heavy, and the farmer has straw convenient, it 
is well to put a layer of straw about six inches thick, alternately 
with a layer of clover, about a foot thick, and not allow it to 
be tramped much. 

Where clover is sown on wheat, and comes on very rank after 
harvest, it is best to mow and cure it. This leaves the ground 
cleaner for next year's mowing, and the sheep will readily sort 
the clover from the wheat stubble. If the soil is very rich, and 
the season rainy, however, clover rowen is not safe fodder for 
sheep. I have had a few animals killed by it, and a large num- 
ber in the flock were miserably " slobbered " and sickened. 

It has also come within my experience that clover hay (first 
growth), cut very green and succulent on rich river bottoms, 
has caused pregnant ewes to " slink " their lambs. This is a 
very rare occurrence, however. 

Corn Fodder. — To the casual observer it might seem quite a 
hopeless undertaking to winter an animal, which is so dainty, 
and which searches the ground over so carefully for the finest 
herbage as the sheep, on such coarse provender. But after 
sheep have once been trained to eat it, corn fodder is one of the 
very best feeds for them ; superior to every other except clover 
hay. 

For cattle, corn may be kept until it is yellow almost to the 
tassel, but for sheep, the best fodder will be secured by cutting 
as soon as the husk shows the color. When husked, it should 
be bound into bundles with tarred twine ; this will prevent the 
rats and mice from gnawing the bands. With a knot in one 
end, slipping into a noose at the other, such a band can be easily 
unfastened in winter, slipped into the pocket and saved for 
another season. 

All corn-fodder ought to be ricked near the feeding-yards 
This may be done the last of November or iirst of December — if 
the fodder is not wet — without danger of molding. 

My way of ricking fodder is as follows : I lay down a double 
row of bundles, top to top, lapping to the bands. To keep the 
middle full, I make every other course or layer a single one. 



FOE WOOL Al^B MUTTOl^. 205 

consisting of bundles laid butt to tip alternately. I do not 
draw in any. At a suitable height I lay a stringer of bundles 
endwise on the rick, three or four to each length, which sharp- 
ens up a basis for the roof. The roof consists of a single course 
on each side, the bundles sloping up to a peak. 

Colonel F. D. Curtis says "cornstalks are wasteful food for 
sheep," and he recommends that the leaves be stripped off when 
green, cured, and bound in bundles for suckling ewes and early 
lambs. The farmers of the Atlantic slope can probably best 
dispose of their small cornstalks by cutting them for cattle ; but 
I doubt if it will pay to cut the large stalks of the West ; and 
when given out uncut, sheep will pick them far cleaner than 
will cattle or horses. 

I never wintered lambs on corn-fodder, but a neighbor of 
mine, Mr. W. S. Gray, a careful, practical shepherd, has done 
so several times with excellent results. 

Fodder Corn.— In Vol. I., No., I. of The Shepherd's National 
Journal, Mr. Arvine C. Wales, of Stark County, Ohio, gives a 
very valuable account of his mode of growing this kind of for- 
age for sheep. He states that he sows about two or two and a 
half bushels of common corn per acre, with a Buckeye wheat 
drill, in the first week of June. His only cultivation is to run 
the Thomas Smoothing Harrow once or twice over it when about 
three inches high. He harvests with a Champion, side-delivery, 
self -raking reaper, beginning about the first week in September, 
when the lower joint is turned to a bright yellow. I copy his 
own words: "Besides the driver of the machine, there are 
eight men, divided into four gangs, of two to a gang. The 
' stations ' are measured off and assigned as in reaping wheat. 
Each gang of two men is provided with a 'corn horse,' which 
is simply a light rail, with two legs at one end, and a loose four 
foot pin in the middle. Each gang is also provided with a 
quantity of wool twine, cut to a suitable length, and hung on a 
hook in the end of the 'horse.' When the men are in their 
places, and the machine starts, one of the men passes two of 
the gavels or sheaves, and sets up his 'horse.' He then goes 
back and picks up the two gavels, one at a time, and iDuts them 
into two of the angles formed by the ' horse ' and and its loose 
pin ; his comrade does the same with the two gavels in front of 
the ' horse.' Then one draws out the pin and moves the ' horse ' 
on by two more while the other, with a piece of wool twine a 
yard long, binds the top of the shock. Here it stands for ten 



206 THE AMEKICAI^ MEEINO 

days or two weeks, till it is partly cured. Then the men break 
the shocks open, each shock generally separating into the four 
original gavels, and bind it into sheaves with the fodder itself, 
which by this time has become tough and withy. Twelve or 
more sheaves are then put into a great shock and the top of it 
bound by the wool twine used in the first place. 

"I had almost forgotten to say that one is far less dependent 
on the weather in curing fodder corn than in making hay. Sev- 
eral years it has rained nearly every day while cutting, but I 
never lost a hundred pounds through wet weather, unless it had 
blown down and been allowed to lie on the ground. Here it 
should stand until wanted for feed. It is so full of sugar, and 
starch, and gum, that it cannot be safely stored in barns or 
stacks. It will heat and ferment. A near neighbor lost his 
entire crop last winter, although carefully stacked in long, low, 
narrow ricks. This is the greatest objection to fodder corn. It 
is hard getting it up when repeated freezings and thawings have 
glued it to the ground towards spring ; and it is hard hauling 
when the wheels sink through the soft ground to the bottom of 
the furrow. 

***** 

" I cut and steam all my fodder. It is cut on a cutter with a 
capacity of three or four tons per hour. 

" The yield of dry fodder has been from five to seven tons per 
acre, and I carry as much stock and get as much and as good 
feed from seventy acres of fodder corn, as I used to get from 
one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty-five acres of 
meadow. Whoever sows corn for the first time will be aston- 
ished at the amount of feed he will have in September." 

Timothy. — Every farmer is presumed to know how to cut 
and cure timothy, but there are few who sow it thick enough 
and cut it in the right stage to make fine, palatable sheep-feed. 
On mellow, rich land I have found it advisable to sow two gal- 
lons of seed per acre. Coarse, ripe timothy is about the poorest 
sheep-fodder that can be imagined. It ought to be cut when in 
blossom ; and if there is a large amount of it to be harvested, it 
is well to commence even earlier, reserving the finest and green- 
est for lambs, and the later cut for older sheep. Unmixed 
timothy is veiy objectionable for pregnant ewes ; it is too con- 
stipating. They will eat off the heads and the leaves, avoiding 
the stalks to the last ; and if these are over-ripe and woody they 
may become impacted in the stomach, causing heat and irrita- 



FOn WOOL Al^D MUTTON". 207 

tion. If the ewes are suckling lambs, the latter are apt to die 
of constipation at the age of one or two weeks. For fattening 
wethers it is somewhat better, but to any class of sheep it ought 
not to be given more than once a clay, with an alternation of 
some more laxative fodder. 

Objectionable as clear timothy is, I do not think it advisable 
(with the exception of a light admixture of timothy with clover, 
as above noted) to sow meadows with mixed seed. Pastures 
may well be composed of various grasses, thus affording a cue- 
cession of feed ; but a meadow has a set time for harvest, and 
the different grasses do not ripen simultaneously. It is best to 
grow and harvest each by itself; then, for variety, feed the 
flock from different mows. To this end there should be a suc- 
cession of meadows, as, for instance, clover, orchard grass, 
timothy, red-top, Hungarian grass ; then each can be harvested 
when it is at its best stage of growth and ripeness. 

Orchard Grass {Dactylis glomerata). — 1'his, if allowed to 
become over-ripe, is even poorer for sheep than timothy, if this 
is possible. It ought to be mown as soon as the seed-stalks 
have attained their full height, before the pollen begins to fly 
about. Well secured in this stage, it is so thoroughly good that 
I have for years always had one, and sometimes two, of my 
meadows in orchard grass. It does not yield quite so much 
weight per acre as timothy, but it more tnan compensates for 
this by the dense and vigorous aftermath which it throws up, 
affording luxuriant pasturage for four or five months, while, if 
the autumn is dry, the timothy stubble will remain gray and 
parched. Most farmers make a failure with orchard grass 
because they do not sow it thick enough. Two or two and a, 
half bushels of seed per acre are required to prevent it from 
growing in tussocks and to make it tine enough for sheep. It 
should be sown in March on a very fine, well-harrowed seed-bed. 

Hungarian Grass {Panicum Germanicum). — This, too, should 
be sown very thick for sheep-feed, gay a bushel per acre, on 
strong soils. Otherwise it produces heads so large as to be dis- 
tasteful to sheep, and they will leave them lying in the rack 
after eating the stalks and leaves. This is especially liable to 
happen w^hen the hay has not been cured enough, in which case 
the large, succulent heads will become moldy. To prevent this 
hay from molding is, in fact, the chief difficulty in its manage- 
ment. It ought to be exposed nearly, or quite, three days to 
the sunshine. At best it is suited to grown sheep, rather than 



208 THE AMERICAi^ MEEINO 

to lambs, and it ranks high as a milk-producing feed for suck- 
ling ewes, 

Eed-top {Agrostis vulgmns). — This makes excellent hay for 
sheep, but, like timothy, it must not be allowed to stand too 
long, and become dry and woody. In Southern Ohio, on red 
and yellow clay uplands, it succeeds better than timothy, which 
it will eventually supplant ; and it makes, also, better hay, be- 
cause it is finer and more nutritious. Sheep fed on bright, red- 
top hay will wmter as well as those fed on timothy with the 
addition of a half-bushel of shelled corn per hundred each day. 

Meadow Grass. — Under the various names, June grass. Blue 
grass, etc., rather loosely and indiscriminately applied, most 
Western farmers are familiar with one or both of two species, 
Poa pratensis and Poa compressa. They are so nearly alike in 
feeding value and other respects, that most farmers recognize 
no difference between them. They are the richest of all grasses, 
native or cultivated, and are incomparable for pasture, but for 
meadows they are unsatisfactory to thrifty farmers, as they 
yield so light a weight of hay. I have, however, found it very 
advantageous to mow small areas of them, natural hillside 
meadows, strips of creek-bottoms, etc., as they furnish for 
lambs by far the finest and richest hay obtainable. 

Miscellaneous.— The vines of beans and peas are better rel- 
ished by sheep than by other stock, and are excellent for a va- 
riety. Clover chaff, the refuse material left after the seed has 
been threshed out, if not too much bleached, will be eaten by 
sheep to some extent. 

It is often the case that there are patches in the cattle pasture 
too rank to be eaten green ; these ought to be mown and cured 
for the sheep. A certain portion of weeds and bitter stuff, rag- 
weeds, morning-glory vines, docks, etc., will be more accept- 
able to sheep occasionally, than an unbroken regimen of the 
best of hay. 

The orts in the racks ought to be thrown into a separate rack 
and brined ; if there is still a remnant left, the horses will con- 
sume most of it. Cattle dislike the leavings of sheep. 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 209 

CHAPTEE XXII. 
SYSTEMS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

On the Atlantic Slope. — In the famous standard or stud- 
flocks of Vermont, the rule is said to be, twenty tons of hay for 
every hundred sheep. It is probable that the celebrated breeder, 
Edwin Hammond, of that State, did more to increase the w^ool- 
bearing capacity of the sheep of this country than any other 
dozen men ; yet we have the testimony of Doctor Randall, that 
he fed his ewes nothing but hay. 

But, on the Atlantic slope, the Merino is no longer preeminent, 
except in limited areas — of which the most notable is Vermont 
— for the production of wool and mutton is an entirely subordi- 
nate industry, owing to the fact that it is a region very much 
superior to others, devoted more largely to wool-growing in req- 
uisites necessary to success, in mixed farming. And this fact 
makes it creditable to sheep that they retain as permanent a 
foothold as they do there. The breeds of sheep are perhaps not 
as well defined or as highly improved as in the West ; there 
lingers a greater proportion of the old native American stock, 
described by Youatt as being a sort of mongrel scrub Leicester, 
mixed with Southdown and Cotswold. 

The limited product of grain and the great cheapness with 
which it can be produced in the West render it too high-priced 
to be given to sheep in any quantity. Eastern farmers endeavor 
to winter their stock or breeding flocks without grain — on clover 
hay, chaff, pea, bean, wheat and oat straw — thus making them 
serve as scavengers or consumers of refuse products. This for 
the reason that there is a cash market for nearly everything, 
even rye and wheat straw. A ]3rominent object with them is 
the growing of early lambs for the market. They buy ewes 
shipped from the West, generally those which have passed their 
prime ; rangy, good-sized, open-wooled grade Merinos; on which 
they cross a Southdown or Cotswold ram two years old or up- 
wards. The earliest lambs are dropped from January 15th to 
February 15th ; the ewes are well sheltered and fed to improve 
their condition, so that they generally yean fine, strong lambs. 
When the latter are a few weeks old they are allowed access to 
a separate apartment, and are fed bran, meal, and ground oats 
in troughs. They generally bring four dollars and fifty cents 
to five dollars per head when they will weigh thirty or forty 



210 THE AMEEICAN MERIITO 

pounds gross ; sometimes as high as ten dollars ! If not too 
aged, the ewes are retained for fmrther service ; if they are, they 
are fattened for the fall market. A Southdown ram generally 
costs from ten to twenty dollars. They are preferred to the 
Cotswold, Lincoln, or middle-wool rams, because their lambs, 
though smaller, fatten better, have better hams, and produce a 
marbled flesh. 

The Merino's share in this, oftentimes very profitable, business 
is a somewhat humble one, yet it seems likely to be enduring, 
because, while the crossing with a Merino does not impair the 
quality of the mutton, the Merino ewe brought from the West 
offers the cheapest medium through which this mutton can be 
produced. A ewe too old to do further service, as a breeder in 
the vast flocks of the plains is still, in most cases, capable of 
doing one or more year's excellent work in a small, well-fed 
flock ; and she can be transported and sold to the New York or 
New Jersey farmer for less money than it would cost him to 
raise either a Down or a Merino on his own farm. 

One of the cmlous by-products of the sheep that may be 
mentioned is the manui'e, which is sought for by the tobacco- 
growers of the Connecticut Eiver valley. Mr. J. F. C. Allis, of 
East Whately, Massachusetts, in a letter to Hon. John L. Hayes, 
states that Merinos, crossed with lon^-wools, are the best for 
this purpose ; they are better feeders and take on fat more easily 
than the long- wools. The feeders buy large wethers from Mich- 
igan, from three to five years old, and have them pastured till 
November. Then they are closely housed, forty or fifty in a 
pen, and well bedded ; about December 1st they begin to feed 
grain lightly, gradually increasing, until they eat a quart apiece 
daily. They seldom eat more than that. IMr. Allis further 



"The cause for feeding so many sheep for their mutton in 
this valley is the high value of sheep-manure for tobacco-grow- 
ers, it having the effect on our light soil to produce a dark-colored 
silky leaf, of good burning quahty, suitable for wrapping fine 
cigars ; the tobacco burns white, and has a good, sweet flavor, 
perhaps owing to the potash it derives from the manure. So 
valuable do we consider this sheep-manure that we have shipped, 
since 1870, from West Albany, from fifty to one hundred and 
fifty cords, costing from eight to ten dollars a cord, every spring. 
On our light soils, caUed pine-lands, after raising crops of to- 
bacco, two thousand pounds to the acre, we have sown wheat ; 
yielding thirty bushels of a plump berry, and a heavy weight 



FOR WOOL Al^B MUTTON. 211 

of straw, on land which without this manure is fit only for 
white beans. We, of late years, feed with our sweetest and 
finest hay, and mix with our corn, one- third cotton- seed meal ; 
by so feeding our sheep fatten more easily, being more hardy 
and better conditioned, besides increasing the value of the ma- 
nure and rendering it more full of i^lant food." 

Wm. Ottnian & Co., wholesale butchers in Fulton Market, 
New York, state that at the time of writing (March, 1885), well- 
fattened Merino wether carcasses are selling at one and a half to 
two cents per pound less than corresponding Southdown car- 
casses. Yet, so little do the latter excel the former in size that 
the butchers, to prevent 'their fastidious customers from impo- 
sition, are obliged to leave the dark skin on the legs. 

Notwithstanding that the Merino has these odds to contend 
against, as a mutton-producer, on the Atlantic slope, still there 
are, undoubtedly, many localities in that section where, owiiig 
to the unfavorable conditions for turnip growing, the superior- 
ity of the Merino as a dry-feeder and also as a wool-producer, it 
will be advisable for the farmer to choose this breed. I have, 
in the preceding chapter, indicated, briefly, the best methods 
of growing and curing the various dry fodders for sheep ; it re- 
mains now to consider the subject of growing those roots and 
green crops which are found to be best adapted to the wants of 
the sheep. 

Of roots, the best is the sugar beet ; then follow, in their order, 
mangels, ruta-bagas and turnips. Mustard, rape and rye are valu- 
able for green-feeding or for that i5ystem, originated in England, 
which may be called oj)en-air soiling. Rape may be sown as 
early as August, on a wheat or rye stubble, for fall and early win- 
ter pasturage ; and again in September, or early in October for 
spring grazing. Mustard sown in the spring affords summer 
pasturage, and turnips may be sown so as to furnish feed in the 
field as early as September, or even earlier, while the beets, 
mangels and ruta-bagas will mature later, to be harvested for win- 
ter. Mr. Henry Stewart, in giving his experience, says : " One 
acre of either of these crops will feed fifty ewes from fourteen 
to twenty-one days, as the yield may be small or large ; a fair 
yield upon good soil will last the longer period ; but it is neces- 
sary in feeding these crops, to give the sheep only a narrow strip 
each day — thus, one acre being about two hundred and ten feet 
square, ten feet in width may be given to the sheep for their 
daily supply, which will give forty square feet for each sheep. 
Anyone who has grown mustard or rape, will see in a moment 



212 THE AMERICAI^ MERINO 

that the supply of food would be ample, and after one has had 
some practice in growing and feeding these crops the provision 
may be made to furnish a full supply to twice as many sheep as 
has been mentioned. 

" It is an essential part of this business that the fields should 
be well arranged. The most convenient method is to have no 
larger fields than five acres for fifty sheep, and to have them 
long and narrow — that is, about two hundred feet wide and 
twelve hundred feet long ; the fields being divided from each 
other by portable fences, so that they may be changed at will. 
A long field of this kind may be put into crops, sown succes- 
sively one to follow the other, and at the above rate of feeding, 
five acres would feed fifty sheep for one hundred and twenty 
days before it was all gone over once ; and by replowing and 
sowing, behind the flock, a new supply will be coming on to be 
used as soon as the end of the field is reached. 

" This system is thus admirably adapted to mixed farming, in 
which a flock of sheep can be utilized with great economy and 
profit, as well as to a special sheep farm. It is perhar)S most 
available for a mixed farm, because of the fine condition of the 
ground thus fed off, the soil being well and richly fertilized by 
the sheep, and the manure being distributed far more evenly 
than it could be done by hand. It is, in fact, a method of sum- 
mer fallowing land without labor and with much greater ad- 
vantage and effect than could be gained by the usual way of 
doing it, and at the same time making a considerable profit." 

The Submontane District. — There is a large submontane 
region extending along both flanks of the Appalachian chain, 
from Lake Champlain to the Kanawha Eiver, which may be con- 
sidered the home and stronghold of the American Merino, where 
it will permanently resist the encroachments of the Cotswold 
and the Down. Here the mountaineer will for all time find 
these sheep the sheet-anchor of his humble system of husbandry, 
believing the old Virginian saying, that ' ' they are an unhappy 
flock." By their fertilizing droppings, scattered on the sum- 
mits of the knolls and hills where they delight to spend the 
night and the heat of the day, they will counteract the erosion 
by the rain and the frost and prevent that suicidal waste of soil 
from hillside plowing by which the farmer feeds the rivers from 
the heart of his pocket-book. 

In this region the basis of sheep husbandry is Indian corn, 
hay, and fodder. The size of flocks increases as we go West. 



FOR WOOL A^D MUTTON". 



213 




214 THE AMERICAN MERIXO 

Id Western New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, Ohio and 
Indiana, Merinos and their grades prevail, of established breeds, 
though in the southern half of this region there are still im- 
mense numbers of the old natives, or "mountain rangers," 
whose bald heads denote a mongrel Leicester blood coming from 
Virginia. The Pan-handle and adjacent regions still have some 
large flocks, yielding the superfine or electoral wools. Wash- 
ington County, Pennsylvania, is the home of the Black-tops 
or Delaine Merinos. Western Pennsylvania, Virginia and 
Southern Ohio grow a plainer sheep and a longer staple than 
Vermont, Western New York, and Northern Ohio. Pennsylva- 
nia, West Virginia, and Ohio sheep are accounted the truest 
representatives of tbe American Merino, and their wool has long 
been quoted highest in the Eastern markets. But in Ohio, of 
late years, the breeding of very wrinkly and yolky sheep to 
cross on the coarse Mexicans of the West has somewhat debased 
the staple— as happened in Vermont from a similar cause— 
which, together with frauds and carelessness in the preparation 
of the chps for market, has hm-t the good name of Ohio wool. 
Michigan and Wisconsin fleece, long holding the second rank, 
is now pressing for admission to the first. 

In this region, wool holds precedence over mutton. Hay, 
principally timothy, some clover, red-top, blue-grass, with corn, 
oats, and bran constitate the staple feed. Some careful flock- 
masters grow turnips and fodder-corn for breeding ewes, but a 
vast majority depend on bran and clover-hay for a laxative. 
Shelled corn is the principal grain-feed for fattening wethers, 
while the favorite ration for lambs and tegs is corn, oats and 
bran, mixed in about equal proportions. Mutton wethers are 
shorn unwashed in March, April or May, sold at four dollars 
and twenty-five cents to three dollars and fifty cents a hundred, 
and shipped East. Many young ewes are sent West to found 
new flocks ; oldish ones to the East, for the use above men- 
tioned. The flocks are washed the latter part of May, shorn 
about two weeks later, and the wool sold to agents, who gener- 
ally receive one cent a pound commission. 

The Prairie Region. — This cannot be termed a good section- 
for the Merino ; there are some fine flocks in Northern Missouri, 
Wisconsin, Indiana, and especially Kansas ; but the English 
long-wools are less subject to that plague of the country — the 
foot-rot. Nor is the sheep generally well treated in this region. 
Almost as soon as one leaves Indiana, going west, he begins to 
see all kinds of stock in the same field, which is large, however. 



FOR WOOL AN-D MUTTON". 215 

owing to the scarcity of fencing. In hard winters, thousands 
of sheep are driven east from the plains to the cheap corn of 
Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa, which is given to them in the ear, 
on the ground, in a wasteful manner ; or they are allowed to 
enter the standing grain itself . In Minnesota they winter well 
on clover-hay, alone ; or prairie hay and corn. In Nebraska 
the maximum cost of keeping a sheep a year is one dollar ; from 
that down to sixty-five cents. Twelve tons of prairie hay, cost- 
ing twenty-eight dollars and twenty cents, and two hundred 
bushels of corn, worth thirty to fifty dollars, will winter ono 
hundred sheep. A shed and racks of pine for one thousand 
sheep will cost five hundred dollars ; a " Kansas shed " of poles, 
hay, sorghum stalks, etc., costs only a trifle. 

Prairie Wool. — The following schedule of prices will show 
about how the wools of the prairie region are valued (bright and 
dark) : 

Bright Wools from Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Mis- 
souri, Indiana and Eastern Iowa. 

washed. 

Fine 27 @ 29 

Medium 29 @ 31 

Quarter Blood 27 @ 28 

Coarse 24 @ 25 

Cotted and Rough 21 @ 22 

UNWASHED. 

Fine Light 18 @ 19 

Fine Heavy 16 @ 17 

Medium 22 @ 23 

Quarter Blood 20 @ 21 

Coarse 16 @ 18 

Cotted and Rough 12 @ 13 

Dark Wools from Western Iowa, Nebraska, Dakota, Min- 
nesota AND Kansas. 
washed. 

Fine 25 @ 26 

Medium 27 @ 28 

Quarter Blood 25 @ 26 

Coarse 22 (a) 24t 

Cotted and Rough 19 @ 20 

unwashed. 

Fine Light 15 @ 16 

Fine Heavy 13 @ 15 

Medium 17 @ 20 

Quarter Blood 16 @ 18 

Coarse 16 @ 17 

Cotted and Rough 11 @ 12 

*' Stalk Pasture." — Sometimes a field of corn is planted too 
late, or for some other reason does not fully mature, but makes 



216 THE AMEEICAIT MERIXO 

what is popularly called " mutton corn." The sheep are turned 
into it when the grass pastures fail, in the fall, and are kept on 
it throughout the winter, or until it is consumed. Sometimes, 
in a good field of corn, the ears are " snapped " or pulled oS the 
stalks and hauled out in wagons, the stalks being left standing. 
Sheep are turned into the field to harvest the imperfect ears and 
the foliage, and are herded on a limited area during the day 
(about an acre per day suflfices for three hundred head, when 
the stalks have been gleaned ordinarily clean) ; so going over 
the field, after which they are allowed to run at will, and re- 
ceive a stated ration of shelled or ear-corn and prairie hay until 
the stalks are pulled down and stripped clean, when the flock is 
removed to another field. Of course, it is only the stronger and 
hardier sheep that can " rough it" in this fashion ; the weak- 
lings should be removed and fed in the regular way. In South 
Kansas the cost of wintering a sheep this way is estimated at 
sixty to seventy-five cents. 

Other Feeds.— In the latitude of South Kansas it is estimated 
by an experienced shepherd that the natural grass will supply 
half the feed required by the sheep through the winter. It is 
very natritious and fattens stock rapidly when it is young and 
tender, but it soon becomes tough and sheep do not rehsh it 
unless it is closely grazed ; and at best it is pretty much done 
for by the frost as early as November 1st. There are very few 
kinds of hay that sheep will eat better than early-cut prairie 
hay ; but it alone is too binding. One ton is allowed to fifteen 
sheep. 

One of the best dry fodders is sorghum, of which sheep are 
very fond ; besides which it fields more to the acre than any 
other forage plant. Sometimes it is cut and cured in shocks 
like com, sometimes left standing in the field ; in either form 
it is highly relished by the flocks. The seed is similar, accord- 
ing to analysis, to corn. Rice corn or Egyptian corn (another 
variety of sorghum) is considered second best. Millet ranks 
third. In Kansas are seen many large fields of broom-corn, the 
leaves and stalks of w^hich are very fair feed in autumn. Both 
sorghum and rice corn endure the drought better than Indian 
corn, and are highly prized in the semi-arid regions for that 
reason. Half a bushel of rice corn, or Indian corn, or millet 
seed, per hundred head, with millet or sorghum, are considered 
a fair allowance for ordinary winters. 

The Beard grasses or Broom grasses (Andropogon furcatus and 
sconarms) are es Limited to furnish sixty per cent, of the grasses 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOI^. 217 

of the plains. The distinctive feature of prairie haying is the 
"buck-rake" or "go-devil." The teeth, like those of a large 
horse-rake, are about one foot apart. It is capable of hauling 
half a wagon-load on the ground. Some farmers drag a vast 
mass together, driving the horses over it as long as they can 
and dumping ; then tear out around the bottom with pitch- 
forks, top it out in some fashion, and call it a stack or rick. 

General Management. — In the eastern half of the prairie 
section the agricultural system of the Eastern States prevails, 
but in the western half there is a gradual shading away to the 
free-ranging system of the Far West. Even in the agi-icultural 
section, a great deal of trouble is experienced by the flock-mas- 
ters in providing water for their sheep, both summer and win- 
ter. They are, in a majority of cases, compelled to dig or bore 
for it, and then, perhaps, draw up the water by horse-power or 
erect a wind-mill ; and the violent winds (erroneously called 
"cyclones") often blow these down or damage them, or the 
severe weather of winter freezes them up. It is not an uncom- 
mon occurrence to see the farmer in the dead of winter driving 
his flocks some miles to water, or, perhaps, hauling it for them 
with a wagon. One, for instance, in Southern Kansas discov- 
ered, by several weeks' observation, that his flock of six hundred 
head would drink about four barrels of river-water daily. But 
there is one compensation, and that is the facility with which 
immense stock-cisterns can be dug and plastered directly on the 
rich, black prairie mold or on the yellow underlying "loess." 
The scarcity of lumber also tempts the flock-master to attempt 
to winter his flock witbi too little protection, or underneath a 
wretched straw or sorghum shed. Though the winters in the 
western section are comparatively dry, yet there is an occasional 
flood of waters, and then the flocks, sometimes compelled to 
share the same enclosure with cattle, are frequently seen stand- 
mg or wadmg about in wof ul fashion in deep mud and water, 
which is productive of foot- rot and a malady sometimes taken 
for foot-and-mouth disease. 

In 'Minnesota, sheep are generally very healthy, with a slight 
exception of scab ; in the rest of the prairie section the same 
general statement may be made, with the exception of foot-rot ; 
but this exception is so important that it constitutes a serious 
drawback, almost an estopper, to the growmg of the Merino. 
There are flne, rolling belts, as in North Missouri, Wisconsin, 
Southern and Central Illinois, where the better drainage, and 
the presence of sand in the soil, exempt the floclis, more or less, 



218 THE AMEEICAN MEEIKO 

from this great pest ; but wherever the black, waxy " gumbo " 
prevails, even if the surface is rolling, the foot-rot is so bad that 
half the flock will sometimes be seen limping, and a large per- 
centage grazing around on their knees. Pellets of the ' ' gumbo " 
soil harden between the segments of the hoof, rendering the 
sheep lame ; and the shepherd has to catch them and remove 
the lumps. This trouble occurs in flocks as far west and north 
as Central Dakota. 

In all this region the general preference is to have lambing 
come on grass. Even in Southern Kansas the most experienced 
shepherds do not care to have lambs before April 25th, though 
some begin as early as April 10th. When lambs are weaned 
they frequently receive oats at the rate of a bushel to two hun- 
dred and fifty head ; when winter comes on a bushel is given to 
two hundred head, together with fine millet or prairie hay ; or 
they are turned into the stalk pasture. In Iowa, and northward, 
blue grass is becoming the main dependence for pasture, while 
timothy is grown for hay much more than in Kansas. 

The la^tter State has some choice flocks of Merinos. In Green- 
wood County, for instance, Mr. Eobert Lay has a flock of over 
one thousand, which in 1884 yielded an average of eleven pounds 
of wool per head ; and that of Mr. C. T. C. White, numbering 
over one thousand, of which ninety per cent, are ewes, yielded 
over ten pounds per head of white delaine wool. 

The Southern States. — In the greater part of the South, sheep 
husbandry is conducted strictly on the laissez faire principle — 
the sheep take care of themselves, except when wanted by their 
owners for the yearly " wool-gathering" and for marking. The 
fact that they continue to exist at aU, and even to increase— 
despite the ravages of darkies, dogs and buffalo-gnats— is infi- 
nitely to their credit and to the credit of the natural resources 
of that sunny land where the snow spirit never comes, and 
where spring flings hei flowers into the lap of winter. 

''ColonelJ. W. Watts, of Martin's Depot, Laurens County, 
South Carolina, a life-long breeder of sheep, after testing, in 
South Carolina, Georgia and Texas, six different breeds, settled 
down upon the Merino for wool and the African Broad-tail for 
mutton. He found the actual cost of keeping a sheep to be 
sixty cents per year ; and, after balancing the iambs and the 
manure against the expense, he found the fleece to be clear 
profit. This, at seven pounds of unwashed wool (from full- 
bloods), selling at twenty-two cents (m 1877), would amount to 
one dollar and fifty-four cents per head. The average number 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTOlf. 219 

of lambs raised from the Merinos he placed at eighty per cent. 
His pasture was broom-sedge and Japan clover {Lespedeza stri- 
ata) until after harvest, then he gave them the run of the grain- 
fields. For winter pasturage he usually sowed rye for the ewes 
and lambs, and gave all the flocks the run of oats sown in Au- 
gust and September ; also allowed them the range of the corn- 
fields and cotton-fields. A^ a mixed feed he found cotton-seed 
wholesome, economical and profitable. His sheep were very 
fond of it ; after feeding on green barley all day they would eat 
it with great relish. Some feed was needed for three months, 
on account of the scarcity of cultivated grasses. Sheep were 
very healthy in his section. 

'* He housed the flocks in winter and littered the stalls fre- 
quently ; the manure thus collected he sowed broadcast or in 
drills, in July or August, for ruta-bagas. In the summer he 
used the Rucliman portable fence, and kept at the rate of one 
thousand sheep to the acre a week. The value of the manure 
thus deposited he regarded equal to about four hundred pounds 
of guano the first year, and its effects were perceptible for sev- 
eral years afterwards. 

" He found the sheep great helps to the farmer in eradicating 
weeds — as, for instance, the cockle-bur, and, in fact, nearly all 
useless plants." — [Letter to Hon. John L. Hayes.] 

" Richard Peters,Esq.,of Atlanta, Georgia, tested nine different 
breeds and crosses between many of them, and settled down on 
thoroughbred Merinos and Cotswolds, with crosses between the 
two. For a general purpose sheep he recommended, most de- 
cidedly, a cross between the full-blooded Merino and the native. 
Like Colonel Watts, he found the fleece clear profit, and he 
estimated it at the same weight. 

"When the winter was mild he found the flocks needed 
feed about thirty days; if cold and wet, twice that time. 
In North Georgia the pasturage consisted of sedge, crab and 
other native grasses ; of the cultivated grasses, orchard grass 
and red and white clover succeeded on uplands, and redtop 
on lowlands. Lucern and German millet were cut for hay ; 
and for winter pasture, the red, rust-proof oats (sown in Sep- 
tember), also barley, rye and wheat could be grazed during the 
winter and early spring and then yield a crop of grain. 

*' In North Georgia the system of sheep husbandry prevailing 
in Ohio would be applicable ; in Middle Georgia, that of Ken- 



230 THE A.MERICAK MERIJiTO 

tucky ; in South Georgia, that of Texas and California, with 
shepherd dogs, etc."— [Letter to Hon. John L. Hayes.] 

In the South Atlantic and Gulf States lambing is expected in 
January, and the lambs coming thus early are usually more 
thrifty than those coming later. The farmer helps himself to 
the wethers at various ages, and sells the small surplus to local 
butchers or for shipment to Eichmond, Washington and Balti- 
more, where they arrive before the Northern grain-fed mutton. 
The ewes are generally kept until they die of old age, disease or 
dogs. 

Wool is generally shorn unwashed in April, and the most of 
it is sold to Jews ; but of late years some shij)ments to Boston 
and Philadelphia have realized better profits and led the way 
for further ventures in this direction. 

Our Northern flock-masters are accustomed to give out cotton- 
seed with timidity and caution, but in the South the planters 
who feed their sheep at all, not unfrequently pour it into the 
troughs ad libitum, and the sheep help themselves without stint 
and without injury. In Tennessee five bushels of cotton-seed 
to the head have been given, during the winter, to a flock of 
half-bloods (Merino and Southdown). In Navarro County, 
Texas, one hundred pounds of hay and a bushel of cotton-seed 
per head are provided as a winter store. In Duplin County, 
North Carolina, twenty sheep received, during January and 
Febmary, a bushel of pea-hulls and two ears of corn per day. 
In Arkansas County, Arkansas, two pounds of cotton-seed per 
day have been given to breeding ewes. 

In the piney woods, sheep do not subsist to any considerable 
extent on the coarse grasses, but on herbs, "mainly upon one 
small perennial herb, growing flat on the ground, with broad 
and rounded leaves, resembling very much the deer-tongue 
(vanilla)," {Liatris odoratissima) , In Bradford County, Florida, 
as I have myself observed, they avoid the grasses of the " flat- 
woods," which are almost as coarse and jejune as the pine leaves 
overhead, and select the smut grass [Manisuris granulans), 
Bermuda grass, crow-foot and crab-grass, besides herbs. All 
these four last named follow cultivation. In Eastern Texas, 
Louisiana and Florida sheep are exceedingly fond of the seed of 
the beggar lice. Guinea grass {Sorghum halapense) has become 
acclimated ; in winter it dies down, but sheep find, deep down 
under the debris, a sweet and tender bite, and they may be seen 
buried to the shoulders searching for it. In winter they will 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOi^ 221 

penetrate the recesses of the canebreak, and they often have to 
be confined to the fields to prevent the lambs from drowning in 
the low, flat woods. 

But in \vint3r they need some provision of cultivated grasses 
or rye, or oats. The wonderful Bermuda — the pest of the cot- 
ton-planter, who is all his life " fighting General Green " — is in 
reality one of the greatest economic blessings ever vouchsafed 
to the South. Dr. St. Julian Ravenel, of Charleston, South Car- 
olina, regards it as superior in value to timothy ; his analysis 
gives it fourteen per cent, of albuminoids. Dr. D. L. Phares has 
demonstrated that red clover will grow in Mississippi, and I have 
myself seen both red and white flourishing, self-seeded, in the 
orange groves of Bradford County, Florida. Paspalum platy- 
caule, also called P. compressiim, is another great favorite of the 
sheep ; it will travel miles m search of it. The Japan clover or 
bush clover has been mentioned above. All these can be propa- 
gated by cultivation, and are excellent for sheep. According 
to Dr. Phares, Japan clover contains 15.11 per cent, of albumi- 
noids and 56.79 per cent, of carbohydrates, which makes it about 
equal to timothy. 

In 1879 the Department of Agriculture sent out to hundreds 
of correspondents in the South a series of questions directed to 
the following points : 

1. Proportion (percentage) of surface, exclusive of area actu- 
ally cultivated, yielding grasses suitable for pasturage for sheep. 

2. Average number of sheep such pasturage is capable of 
sustaining during the summer months. 

3. Average number one hundred acres would sustain in winter. 

4. Number of months in winter in which some extra feed is 
required. 

5. Average weight of fleece in annual shearing. 

6. Average value of fleece per pound. 

7. Average number of lambs from one hundred ewes. 

8. Average percentage of lambs lost by disowning, exposure 
or other causes. 

9. Percentage of sheep (exclusive of lambs) lost annually by 
disease, theft, dogs, wolves, or other causes. 

10. Percentage of sheep destroyed by dogs alone. 

These returns, carefully tabulated, after the correction of ob- 
vious errors and the elimination of estimates not bearing the im- 
press of accuracy of judgment — inevitable blemishes of general 



222 



THE AMEfilCAX MEEINO 



returns upon industries that are either new or of minor magni- 
tude — present the following average results in tabulation : 



STATES. 


1. 

10 

25 
42 
50 
52 
50 
55 


2. 

50 
47 
55 
CO 
53 
50 
55 
50 
55 
60 
70 
70 
60 
62 
90 
80 


3. 

20 
19 

22 
20 
23 
22 
25 
22 
24 
25 
30 
33 
30 
27 
29 
28 


4. 



4 

4 

3.5 

4 

3 

3 

3 

2.5 

3 

3 

2.5 

2.5 

3.2 

4 

4.2 

4.2 


5. 

3.9 

3.7 

3.3 

3.7 

3 

2.9 

2.9 

2.7 

2.8 

2.9 

3.2 

3.5 

3 

2.9 

4 

3.5 


6. 

28 
28 
27 
32 
26 
25 
27 
23 
26 
25 
22 
21 
27 
31 
31 
28 


7. 

92 
95 
95 
90 
90 
91 
93 
89 
98 
92 
95 
90 
94 
90 
97 
95 


8. 

19 

20 
19 
16 
20 
21 
20 
22 
23 
22 
20 
15 
18 
20 
21 
23 


9. 

10 
12 
10 
13 
15 
14 
18 
13 
14 
11 

9 
12 
13 

9 
11 


10. 


Delaware 


4 


Maryland 


7 


Viro-inia 


6.5 


West Viro;inia 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 


4.5 
6 

8 
8 


Florida 


60 
57 
50 
45 
75 
65 
45 
40 
42 


8 


Alabacna 


7 


Mississippi 


8 


Louisiaiia 

Texas 


5 

4 


Arkansas 


7 


Tennessee 


6 


Kentucky 


4 


Missouri 


6 







Column 5 shows how the influence of the Merino constantly 
diminishes as we go South ; and columns 8, 9 and 10 show the 
hopelessness of sheep husbandry in that' section until better 
management and better dog laws prevail. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 
SYSTEMS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY, Continued. 

Texas — Historical. — The substratum of the sheep of Texas, 
to-day, is the Mexican native, which is descended from the 
Cliourro of the Basque Provinces. The introducer of the Meri- 
nos was George W. Kendall, founder of the New Orleans Pica- 
yune, who established his celebrated farm in Comal County in 
1852. Besides Mr. KendaU, may be mentioned Captain Allison 
Nelson, of Bosque County ; Mr. W. R. Kellum, of McLennan 
County; Mr. F. W. Shaeffer, of Nueces County; Mr. H. J. 
Chamberlin, of MUam County ; and others. 

The Chourros were long, lank and light, producing only one 
and a half or two pounds per head of a coarse, dry, white, 
strong wool, suitable for carpets. Being neglected, they had 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOT^. 223 

not increased much up to the advent of Yr. Kendall, but their 
hard life had developed a toughness which it was Mr. Kendall's 
happy conception to take advantage of and engraft upon it the 
incomparable fleece of the American Merino. After that date, 
sheep increased with extraordinary rapidity, especially in West- 
ern and Southern Texas. It is useless to cite statistics, on ac- 
count of the imperfect returns made of those nomadic flocks. 

Range and Pasture. — In Eastern Texas north of the Nuieces, 
embracing about one half of the available j)asture area of the 
State, there is an agricultural system very much like that of the 
Gulf States generally, with the same native and cultivated 
grasses, supplemented more and more as we go west by the 
mesquite, the grama and other grasses of extreme sections. 

South of the Nueces are the great wool counties, Webb, Du- 
val, Nueces, Starr and Encinal. Everywhere on the alluvial 
soil is the mesquite; on the coast, the sage and salt grasses ; with 
some grama in the west, increasing as we go to the northwest 
— all excellent for sheep ; the grama easily first, because it re- 
sists the droughts so common in this region. Stock are often 
watered from wells, from fifteen to fifty feet deep. 

Along the Pecos and west, is a vast desert where even the an- 
telope is sometimes hard-pushed for water. Close along the 
Pecos and Rio Grande there are strips of good grass ; also ten 
or fifteen miles back — but no surface water. The pods of the 
mesquite tree come in early autumn, as fattening as corn ; then 
there are the grama, the mesquite and the buffalo grasses — all 
with different varieties — with the black grama prevailing on 
the Rio Grande. Water is in springs, ponds and holes, of which 
only a few last through hot weather. 

Between the 100th meridian and the Pecos, besides the above, 
is the juahia, eagerly sought by sheep in the spring, when it 
furnishes a juice of the color and taste of milk ; the sotal, like 
the Spanish bayonet, of which the shepherd cuts off the top of 
thorns with his machete (knife), allowing his flock to eat the 
juicy interior, which is very fattening ; the nopal cactus, on 
which, with the sotal, sheep will go without water for many 
days ; the saladio, the baradulcia, or grease wood, extremely 
palatable and nutritious to stock in winter ; and many other 
valuable herbs and bushes. 

In the Panhandle the pasture is mostly too coarse for sheep, 
besides which there is found the poisonous '• loco," w^hich pro- 
duces insanity, strange, fantastic capers, and lingering death. 



224 THE AMEKICAJT MERIJ^TO 

General Management. — The most progressive owners are 
fencing their ranges with wire, to prevent quarrels between 
their shepherds and neighboring cattle-men. Where herding is 
followed, the flock is generally reduced to about eleven hundred ; 
smaller flocks would do better, but would increase the expense 
of herding. Ewes and lambs are kept by themselves, leaving 
barren ewes and wethers — locally called "muttons" — to be 
herded together in "dry flocks." The corral is a simple circle 
of brushwood or a wattled fence ; hard by stands the hut of 
the shepherd ; both being generally on the southern slope of 
some knoll or creek, or on the south side of a cedar-brake, for 
protection against the northers. 

The shepherd must rise early to give his charge the benefit of 
all the daylight hours. After his breakfast of mutton (goats are 
kept with the flocks to furnish this, where the shepherd is a 
a Mexican), pancakes and coffee, be opens the corral, if it is 
hot weather the sheep saunter out leism-ely, but if it is chilly 
and wet they move away more briskly, and then the shepherd 
frequently, instead of following after, goes before, ciichng to 
right and left, to restrain their movements. 

It depends a good deal on the disposition of the man whether 
or not he is allowed to have the assistance of a shepherd dog. If 
he is lazy and dishonest he can make the dog huddle them, while 
he sleeps or dawdles away his time, and the sheep go hungry. 
Besides that, an ambitious dog is apt to "circle " them too much, 
of his own accord, thus curtailing their feed ; and it is highly 
necessary that they should be allowed to "take a spread" in 
order to fill themselves. Range sheep should be kept fat by all 
means ; a jDOor animal will go down in a storm and get up no 
more. A cur dog is sometimes employed ; having been suckled 
by a goat it lingers with the flock and will frighten away wild 
animals. 

The flocks occupy the winter range from December until 
shearing time, and the summer pasture the remainder of the 
year. The winter range is selected with reference to its resources 
for protection against storms. 

Rams (generally full-blood or high-grade Merinos bought in 
the North) are kept by themselves ; they are given extra feeds 
of oats, cotton-seed or corn for a few weeks before service be- 
gins ; then about the middle of September they are turned, with 
the ewes — three to every hundred — in the corral during the 
night, and removed through the day, or vice versa. The coup- 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 225 

ling season lasts six or eight weeks ; after it is closed the rams 
still receive daily feeds of grain for some weeks. 

The sheep are now put on the winter ranges, which are gen- 
erally near the ranch headquarters. Sometimes a shed is pro- 
vided here for a small flock of crones and weaklings, and for the 
rams. The shortness of the days and the scarcity of herbage 
now compel the shepherd to rise veiy early and to keep his flock 
out as long as daylight lasts. About once a week they are salted 
— say five gallons of salt to the thousand head, perhaps with a 
few pounds of ashes and sulphur mixed. If the sheep have grub 
in the head some shepherds mix with the salt a few pints of 
soot. iSalt is not required on the coast or with mesquite grass. 

Lambing. — This comes on about February 15th. Two or three 
extra men to each flock of ewes are hired to assist the regular shep- 
herd. Some small brush-pens are built near the corral for ewes 
disowning their lambs. In the morning when the ewes are let 
out of the corral they are restrained near by until aU the newly 
dropped lambs and their mothers can be discovered, collected 
and removed to a separate flock. During the day the men are 
busy working homeward the lambs dropped on the range, fre- 
quently carrying in each hand three or four by the forelegs, 
stopping occasionally to let the ewes come up and smell them. 

Soon there are three flocks ; the mam one ; a second, with 
lambs a week old and upward; a third, with, the youngest lambs. 
As fast as the lambs are transferred from the youngest flock to 
the older one they are marked, docked and castrated. 

Shearing.— About April 15th or May 1st, in South Texas, 
shearing begins; the dry flocks are shorn first, the suckling 
ewes last, to avoid loss of increase likely to ensue if the ewes 
and lambs are disturbed and separated too early. The shearing 
is generally done by Mexicans, who receive three and a half to 
four cents a fleece. A covered platform is provided for the pur- 
pose, and on this the sheep are thrown down, tied (about ten at 
a time) and shorn, while the flock-master and his assistants are 
busy receiving, tallying, tying up and sacking the fleeces. 

South of San Antonio semi-annual shearings generally pre- 
vail; m the spring, extending from February to May 1st ; in the 
fall, in September and October. North of San Antonio annual 
shearings are the practice. The spring-cut fleeces are tied up ; 
the fall-cut are bagged without tying, being light. This latter 
practice, of course, operates against the grower, since it causes 
to be mingled together all parts of the fleece, which are graded 
by the buyer about on a level with the lowest. 



226 THE AMEEICAI^ 3IERIK0 

Semi-annual shearings have their disadvantages as well as ad- 
vantages. They cut the wool shorter and therefore make it 
worth from three to five cents less per pound — since the wools 
of Texas, if suffered to grow a year, would often be long enough 
for combiug purposes — and they double the expense. On the 
other hand, they are very beneficial to sheep, especially lambs, 
in that hot chmate, promoting their health and condition ; they 
afford the shepherd a better opportunity to hold in check and 
eradicate the scab. They also put money in the shepherd's 
pocket twice a year, which is an object in a State where the 
merchant is frequently asked to advance money on fleeces still 
on the sheeps' backs. 

Pasturage. — A great point of superiority in the Texas grasses 
over those of California is, that the former are perennial, and 
therefore do not suffer particularly if their seeds are consumed. 
Though they may seem to be dead in a drought, a rain will 
soon freshen them up and make them green in the heart. While 
cattle will not readily graze after sheep, the latter, by sharp 
tramping, close feeding and the tearing-up of grasses in a fight 
soil, destroy pasture that would support cattle a long time ; but 
where the land is strong and deep, and cattle would injure it 
greatly by poaching it when muddy, sheep are a benefit. Here 
they do not pull up the grass or poach the mud, while their 
light treading buries the grass-seeds and assists them to germi- 
nate, and they manure the soil. 

The best flock-masters inveigh strongly against the old, shift- 
less way of allowing stock to go the entire winter without arti- 
ficial feed. Not only does the short grass — dead and almost 
rotten — produce intestinal worms and fever, it is claimed, but 
even that fails, sometimes. An abundant provision of water 
should be made by means of weUs, wind-pumps and tanks, for 
if stock have to wait long for water the weakest, which can 
least afford it, lose most time in waiting. 

There ought to be some hay, kept from year to year, if neces- 
sary, and a field of sorghum or guinea grass, late-sown, for win- 
ter forage. Cotton-seed is excellent. One feeder in Kendall 
County reports that he gave his "muttons" six ounces of 
shelled corn daily for three months, and was well repaid by 
the superior quality of the mutton. 

Mutton. — The mesquite grass mutton is asserted to be the 
best in the State, destitute of the objectionable " sheepy " taste, 
and improving (?) with age up to the limit of five or six years. 



FOR WOOL AI^J-D MUTTON. 227 

It is often a " burning question " with the Texas flock-master, 
wliether to ship his mutton- wethers shorn or unshorn. The loss 
of the fleece destroys the plump appearance, hence the sheep 
needs to be very fat in order to endure this exposure and the 
severe ordeal of the railroad journey. The Texas Live Stock 
Journal argues in favor of shearing generally, and makes this 
statement : " We have never known a market butcher to pay 
what we consider the amount the fleece and carcass of a well 
fleeced sheep would bring if separated. In these times, when 
the low prices on both wool and mutton make it a fine calcula- 
tion, any man is hable to make an error in judgment, but if the 
sheep are good producers of wool, it is a safe rule to get off and 
make sure of the fleece before trusting the carcass to the tender 
mercies of the * * * railroad." 

Conservative flock-masters wish to retain about one-eighth of 
the Mexican blood, to secure hardiness and fecundity ; but the 
more progressive ones go on crossing without fear until they 
have practically full-blood Merinos ; and their success in breed- 
ing seems to sustain their position. 

In Northern Texas, south of Ked River, the average fleece 
weighs, for the New Mexican sheep, two and one-fifth pounds ; 
for the Merino grade, four pounds. The New Mexican mutton 
sheep weighs seventy-five pounds, live weight ; the Merino 
grade, ninety pounds. 

A scab-law, with enforced State inspection of flocks, rigidly 
carried out, is much needed. Fencing affords partial protection 
against scab, but not complete. 

The Texas Sheep in General.— The Texas sheep is lighter 
than it should be— probably averages the lightest of all improved 
sheep in the United States. Not to compare it with Northern 
animals grown under careful farm management —which would 
be unjust — let us place it beside some others which are to be 
found on the great ranges of the West. The French Merino 
wether of California weighs one hundred and twenty pounds ; 
the American, one hundred and four pounds ; the Merino wether 
of New Mexico, one hundred and five pounds ; of Nevada, one 
hundred pounds, etc. We have seen above that the Merino 
"mutton "of Texas averages only ninety pounds. Even the 
French Merino, when brought from California to Western 
Texas, falls off ; the wether only attains a weight of ninety-five 
or one hundred pounds. 

The cause of this is undoubtedly lack of feed. The native 



228 THE AMERICAN MERI]!TO 

grasses of Texas are, perhaps, the most nutritious in the coun- 
try, yet the sheep feeding on them are the smallest and their 
fleeces the lightest. It is because of neglect on the part of the 
flock-masters ; they leave them to gain a sustenance wholly by 
the process known in the expressive local vernacular as " rus- 
tling." They have to " rustle " through the summer's drought 
and the winter's rain. Even where the feed is abundant and 
good the flocks are frequently mismanaged so that they do not 
obtain the full benefit of it. The result of this neglect is that 
Texas mutton and wool suffer when brought in competition in 
open market with those products from other Western States 
and Territories. 

In large flocks, the average increase is seventy-five per cent, 
of the breeding ewes ; in smaller flocks, eighty-five per cent. 
In seventy-one flocks, aggregating 139,968 head, one hundred 
ewes dropped eighty-three lambs ; of these, 63. 71 survived to 
yearlings. Texas has some really fine flocks ; for instance, that 
of Hon. H. J. Chamberhn, of Milam County, numbering twelve 
hundred head, yielded in 1884 ten and a half pounds of wool 
per head, with stock rams running from fifteen to thirty-three 
pounds ; and all showing stout, compact carcasses. Rev. W. 
H. Parks, of Bosque County, has another choice flock, many of 
his wethers at maturity weighing one hundred and twenty to 
one hundred and thirty pounds ; while, as to fleeces he sold, 
in 1884, to Denny, Rice & Co., sixty-nine that averaged seven 
pounds of scoured wool to the fleece. 

But it is a fact that a vast majority of wool-growers in Texas 
are quite too negligent in this matter of feed and care in winter 
and during droughts. The experience of flock-masters in Crosby 
and adjoining counties in the cultivation of alfalfa — which has 
been found so valuable in California and Colorado — will be con- 
ducive to good results. While alfalfa, if injudiciously given, is 
sometimes productive of scours, there remains no doubt that it 
is an enormously proliflc plant in warm climates and lowlands, 
and that, in the form of well-cured hay at any rate, it is accept- 
able to sheep and very fattening, producing fine-flavored mut- 
ton. The Kansas experiments with sorghum are also very sug- 
gestive to the Texans, showing that it is an excellent sheep-feed, 
yielding two cuttings a year which aggregate a greater total of 
.feed than corn will produce. 

The dead and half -rotten grass of winter, and the rank growth 
of wet spells, produce worminess in the sheep and a tender, 
brashy fleece. The same results were remarked in Queensland, 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 229 

and the Queenslander reports an experiment which is instruc- 
tive to the Texas shepherds: "One of two young wethers, 
suffering from worms and greatly emaciated, was liberally sup- 
plied with good fresh hay, with a little bran at first. The result 
was that the animal became perfectly healthy and fat enough 
to be killed for mutton. The experiment was tried on a larger 
scale during the hot weather of December and January. 
Sheep have been thriving and fattening on a patch of lucern 
beside a flock pastured on indigenous grasses that was being 
decimated by worms. The lucern was comparatively green 
and succulent. In the other the most nutritious of grasses had 
been eaten off close to the ground." 

Sellman Bros., of San Saba County, state that, of twelve hun- 
dred lambs, they " lost about sixty head, or five per cent. This 
last loss we richly deserved, as I think that anyone who at- 
tempts to carry lambs through the first winter w ithout feed 
deserves to lose. Had we given the money, that those sixty 
head were worth, to the flock in feed, I feel confident that we 
could have saved fifty of them ; besides, the flock would have 
clipped wool enough extra to have paid for it. To verify this, 
we have lost but one out of two hundred and twenty-five buck 
lambs which we wintered on worse range than the other herd 
had, and gave less than one-fourth of a cent's worth of feed a 
day per head." 

Mr. E. A. Louis, of Kendall County, fed his " muttons," the 
past winter, six ounces of shelled corn per head daily. In a let- 
ter to me, describing his methods, he says : "I select a smooth, 
hard, clear surface and place the corn m. small piles over a large 
area, and they all, weak and strong, get their share, and without 
injury to the weaker ones. Before this I had troughs, but found 
out that the stronger ones crowded out the weaker ones and often 
seriously injured them." Corn has formerly been ninety cents 
in Kendall County (the present price is fifty) ; but even at the 
former price, Mr. Louis considers it to be very profitable to give 
to ' ' muttons " intended for the early spring market. 

There is one scouring-mill in the State — in San Antonio ; and 
it would probably be well if there were more. This vast State 
should prepare well for the coming struggle with Australia, for 
the New England market, for fine clothing wools. The growers 
should develop the system so long advocated of skirting their 
fleeces when the sheep are sheared, and grading and baling their 
v/ool, if need be, in their own State, before shipment. By this 
system their best wools would realize a higher price and find 



230 THE AMEEICAN^ MERINO 

their way into the finest fanoy cassimere mills, where they are 
now unknown and condemned unseen. It remains entirely 
with the wool-growers of Texas to change this state of things. 
They can do it from choice now, but the time will come when 
necessity will compel them to do it. The best Texas ranchmen 
are taking much better and much more uniform care of their 
sheep, and are allowing their wool to grow one full year as is 
done in Australia. 

A Sample Flock. — Following is a statement of the actual 
expenses and receipts of a shepherd in San Saba County, who 
began by piu'chasing one thousand ewes, shearing four pounds 
per head, at three dollars a head : 

Dr. 

October 1, 1877. Original investment in stock, camp outfit, 

wages of shepherd for one year, etc $3,565 25 

March 1st. Wagon, $60 ; pair of ponies, $50 110 00 

Harness, $4 ; medicine, $1 50 5 50 

Wages of Mexican and wife from March 1st to October Ist, 

seven months, at $16 112 00 

Board of same, seven months, at $10 70 00 

Grain fed to rams while running with ewes 20 00 

Shearing 1,720 sheep, at four cents 68 80 

Hauling 5,875 pounds of wool to market 29 38 

Public weigher, weighing twenty-four sa^ks, at ten cents 2 40 

Cost of twenty -four sacks, at sixty cents 14 40 

Ten pounds twine, at fifteen cents ICO 

Needle for sewmg sacks 10 

3,999 33 
Cr. 

May 1st. Sale of wool from old ewes, 4,000, at 

twenty-five cents $1,000 00 

October 1st. Sale of wool from 750 six-month-old 
lambs, avera,i2:ino- two and a half pounds, 1,875 

pounds, at twenty-five cents 468 75 

October 1st. Value of stock at expiration of 
first year : 

950 old ewes, at $3 2,850 00 

7.50 six-month-old lambs, at $3 2,'?50 00 

Twenty merino rams, at $15 300 00 

Value of outfit : 

Shot-<?un 10 00 

Bedding, $4 ; axe, fifty cents ; bell, seventy-five cents 5 25 

Wagon, $50; wagon-cover, $1.50 5150 

Spaii of horses 50 00 

Harness 3 00 

Net profits first year to balance 2,989 17 

6,988 50 6,988 50 



These figures pertain to an exceptional condition, where there 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTO^-. 231 

is no crowding of the pasturage, and no particular casualty 
interferes with the best attainable results. 

Among Texas sheep inflammatory diseases and typhus fever 
are unknown. The only diseases reported are scab, liver rot, 
three kinds of worms, grub in the head and hoove, which will 
be treated under their proper heads. 

New Mexico. — For convenience I group New Mexico and 
Arizona with Texas, though they received their Merino stock 
and their system of sheep husbandry largely from California. 
In Texas the best flock-masters seek to breed out the Mexican 
blood entirely, but in New Mexico they wish to f etain an eighth 
or a fourth. The winter storms in the mountains are very sud- 
den, cold and terrific ; but the Texas northers are usually dry. 
Hence, if the New Mexican shepherd carries the grading-up 
beyond three-fourths or seven-eighths, what he gains in sym- 
metry of form, weight of fleece and fineness of staple will be 
oflset by loss of hardiness and fecundity. 

In Texas it is estimated that one-sixth of the sheep are Mex- 
ican, five-eighths are half -Mexican, and five-twenty-fourths are 
from half-blood to pure Merino. But in New Mexico it is only 
in the north-east corner — Colfax, Mora and San Miguel counties 
— ^where Americans have settled, that there is any appreciable 
touch of Merino blood. It is found that the first cross with 
Merino doubles the Mexican fleece in weight. One more cross 
— or at most two — which will bring a fleece of about eight 
pounds of unwashed wool, tolerably fine, yolky and of a fair, 
medium staple, is about as far as they think they can proce.ed 
without detriment to a " rustling," hardy habit and fertility. 

In American flocks the average annual loss, from birth to 
weaning, is from fifteen to twenty per cent. ; above six months 
of age, ten per cent. In occasional snow-storms the losses are 
fearful. Foot-rot is unknown, but scab is common. The Mex- 
icans do not dip their sheep ; they do nothing for scab except 
to drive them through deep water, which does little good ; 
hence, their flocks infect the Americans. A rigid scab-law is 
needed, rigidly enforced ; also fencing, which is found so effi- 
cacious a preventive in Texas. The Americans employ a dip 
consisting of thirty pounds of tobacco, seven of sulphur, three 
of concentrated lye, dissolved in one hundred gallons of water, 
and employed at a temperature of one hundred and twenty de- 
grees Fahrenheit. In ordinary seasons about sixty per cent, of 
the ewes raise their lambs, an increase of about thirty-eight per 



232 THE A.MEEICAN MERI]!fO 

cent, of the flock. In the north the coupling season begins 
about the third week in November and lasts six weeks ; in the 
south, about the first week. Lambing is in April ; shearing, in 
May. Fall shearing increases the total yearly clip about twenty 
per cent. ; it has been common all over the Territory, but is 
gradually being abandoned in the colder north. Flocks are 
rather larger than in Texas. 

Wool is the primary, almost the only, object. The average 
shepherd, in the keen mountain air of this region, will consume 
'twenty-five sheep per year. This makes so marked an inroad 
into the flocks that some owners prefer to purchase beef for 
them at four cSnts a pound. 

The pasturage and forage plants of New Mexico are better 
adapted to sheep than to cattle, and the former have always pre- 
dominated. The characteristi<^ feature of the topography is the 
number of vast, sandy, elevated mesas — sparsely covered with 
low but nutritious grasses — stretching between broken ranges 
which are themselves often covered more or less with grass and 
herbage. The white grama abounds on the levels, while buffalo 
and black grama are the principal highland grasses. On the 
ridges and rocky Igmas are several varieties of cactus, the 
thorns of which are easily broken off, and these are trouble- 
some to herdsmen and stock. There are few unavailable heights 
or forests, but there is much troublesome brushwood in the 
lomas that tears out the sheep's wool. 

The most noticeable effect produced by grazing in this country 
is the destruction of the grass on the mesas and of the shrubs 
and herbs along the streams, as a result of which the flow of 
rain-water from the sudden showers is less impeded than for- 
merly, and vast gullies are chasmed in the arroyos and water- 
courses through this sandy soil, which often compel the traveler 
to make a wide detour. 

Sheep Drives. —One of the peculiar features of the business 
has been the vast drives between California and New Mexico — 
both ways. New Mexico was fully stocked from old Mexico as 
early as 1800 ; when gold was discovered in California, sheep 
were driven in from New Mexico ; and when the Pacific State 
became overstocked, it, in turn, filled up New Mexico with 
Merinos. In some of these drives thirty-four per cent, perished 
on the sandy wastes. Mexican sheep will travel ten to twelve 
miles a day ; Merinos, four to eight. 

Sheep Taken on Shares.— This is much practised, and is 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 



233 



conducted in three different methods. By the first, the lessee 
makes payment entirely in sheep ; by the second, partly in 
sheep and partly in wool ; by the third, wholly in wool. Con- 
tracts generally run five years, and always at the end the lessee 
returns the same number and class of sheep he received. The 
following table will illustrate : 



METHODS. 


LESSOB 

gives: 


KECEIVES : 

1st year. 
Nothing. 


2d year. 


3d year. 


4th year. 5th year. 


First. 


1000 ewes. 
30 rams. 


Nothing. 


lOCO sheep. 
30 rams. 


Nothing. 1 1000 ewes. 


Second. 


1000 ewes. 
3J rams. 


200 wethers. 
500 fleeces. 


203 wetliers. 
5 fleeces. 


200 wethers. 
500 fleeces. 


200 wethers. 
200 wethers. 500 fleeces. 
500 fleeces. , 1000 ewes. 

1 SO rams. 


Third. 


1000 ewes. 
30r;im3. 


i 

;JO0O pounds 2000 pounds 

wool. wool. 


aOOD pounds 
wool. 


2000 pounds 
2000 pounds wool, 
wool. 1 1000 ewes. 
1 30 rams. 



Arizona. — There is a vast amount of territory in the south, 
west, and north which is almost worthless, being either sandy 
deserts, or elevated plateaus, where the only water runs a half- 
mile or a mile below the surface in steep-walled canons. In the 
south the country is belter for cattle than sheep ; only the 
hardy, acclimated Mexicans can endure the great heat and live 
on the coarse herbage ; but in the north there are extensive 
ranges where sheep do best, because they can go without water 
longer than cattle. The scarcity of watering-places limits the 
grazing capacity of the land ; for sheep cannot graze out beyond 
three miles in a day, and back, without losing condition. 

But in the north-west and in the east, along the border of New 
Mexico, there are some fine grazing lands for sheep ; and here 
are found about all the Merinos and their grades which are in 
Arizona, mostly derived from California. Yavapai County, 
which contains about all the sheep of the north-west, was stocked 
with a very fair quality of Merinos — American and French — 
and, with the exception of some old breeding ewes, the Mexican 
blood has been mostly weeded out. Many proprietors produce 
"heavy, fine Merino," though the bulk of the clip grades as 
"heavy, medium Merino," and is good, though dirty from the 
prevalence of sand-storms on the mesas. Flocks of California 
origin average from six to six and a half pounds per fieece, and 
that, twice a year. 

Southern California systems of management are found on 
most ranches, though in the north the Mormons cling to the 



234 THE AMERICAN" MERIN"0 

old-fashioned ways, as, for instance, "handling" for the scab 
— i. e. , catching and smearing with ointment, instead of dipping 
(as in Texas) or swimming through tanks (as in California). The 
scab is kept tolerably \^ ell under control ; not much wool is lost 
from its ravages. 

Apache County contains more than three-fourths of the sheep 
of Arizona, but they are mostly Mexicans. The numbers of 
these render mutton so cheap that the breeder of Merinos finds 
it best to keep his wethers for wool-bearing as long as they will 
live. 



CHAPTEE XXIV. 

SYSTEMS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY, Continued. 

California — Historical. — W. W. Hollister went to Califor- 
nia in 1852, and immediately discovered its adaptability to sheep. 
Returning to Ohio, he again set out for the Golden State, in 1853, 
with a flock of six thousand of the best sheep that his native 
State could raise. They were reduced by death, etc., to one- 
third of the original number before the border of that State was 
reached. But they were the progenitors of the bulk of the sheep 
of California. His flock soon reached one hundred and fifty 
thousand, while his average sales ran up to one hundred thou- 
sand dollars a year. Success like this could hardly fail to in- 
si3ire imitators, and soon a great number became interested in 
sheep husbandry, among whom may be named H. Hollister, 
Mr. Dibbles, T. and B. Fhnt, Jotham Bixby, W. W. Cole and J. 
Moore. These were followed before 1858 by H. A. Rawson, 
Peters, Murray Bros., G. W. Grayson and others. S. W. Jew- 
ett, of Vermont, shiiDped hundreds of Merinos to Cahfornia, by 
sea. In 1870, J. H. Strowbridge introduced a flock of pure 
Merinos from Addison County, Vermont. 

Wool Product. — In 1854 it was one hundred and seventy-five 
thousand pounds. Next year it doubled. The following year, 
or 1858, showed a duplication of the previous one, while 1857 
yielded over one million pounds of wool from the rapidly in- 
creasing flocks of the State. Thence afterward the increase 
was less rapid, but 1859 showed a duplication ; and in 1862, or 
three years thereafter, the chp had risen to almost six million 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTOK. 235 

pounds. Five years then elapsed and ten million pounds was 
reached. The reason of the slower prooress of wool growing 
was due to the greater demand of the markets, which thinned 
off the flocks, and the extended area over which the business 
was carried on, exposing the sheep to greater dangers, and the 
young to greater risks from cold seasons, etc. In 1868 circum- 
slances were favoring, and the product at a bound went up fifty 
per cent. In the year 1870, sixteen years after the first 
serious attempt at the successful pursuit of the business, twenty 
million pounds had been attained as CaUfornia's contribution 
to the wool product of the world. Three years afterwards wit- 
nessed another great stride— in advance, as in 1873 over thirty- 
two million pounds were placed to California's credit in the 
record. California now rapidly approached her maximum 
in the production of wool. The next year saw nearly forty 
million pounds produced, while in two years thereafter, 
1876, she attained to her gi-eatest height m that respect, 
the clip in that year exceeding fifty-six and a half million 
pounds. It is now estimated that seventy-five per cent, of 
the sheep of California are full-blood or high-grade Merinos.' 
Having been engrafted on the old Mission or Mexican stock, 
they are generally hardy and prolific. When the time arrived 
— and it arrived full quickly, under the enormous stimulus of 
gold-digging — when the State became overstocked, California 
was ready to colonize the adjacent States and Territories with 
a class of sheep which could not have been equalled elsewhere 
in the United States in adaptation to the special requirements 
of the newly opened regions. The large, rangy Merino ewes, 
from California and Oregon, supplied the chief contingent in 
the whole region west of the Kocky Mountains, and have con- 
tinued to do so even since the completion of the Southern 
Pacific Railroad, in Western Texas. 

Characteristics of California Sheep.— The rich and co- 
pious pasturage of this State at an early day, and the use of a 
great many French Merino rams in the southern section of it, 
have developed, in California, a Merino from ten to twenty per 
cent, larger than any other in the United States, except the 
Victor-Beall Delaines, of Washington County, Pennsylvania. 
The mature California wether often weighs one hundred and 
twenty pounds ; the ewe, one hundred and ten. The long, mid- 
summer drought of the Pacific coast compels the flocks to be 
driven into the high Sierras, or the Coast Range mountains, 
thus conforming the sheep husbandry of California somewhat 



236 THE AMERICAN MERIiq"0 

to that of Spain ; and a large and strong sheep is required to 
endure the long drives and the severe climbing. 

The CaUfornia flock-masters, impressed somewhat with the 
conservative views of their Mexican hirelings, have generally 
hesitated to build up full-blood Merino flocks, believing them to 
lack in vigor. But Messrs. TCirkpatrick and Whittaker, of Stan- 
islaus County, have handled their thoroughbreds, as nearly as 
possible, in the same way that the common sheep of the State 
are managed, and thus their stock has acquired a vigor pos- 
sessed probably by no other thoroughbred animals, as few would 
care to hazard valuable stock on an annual journey to the sum- 
mit of the Sierra, with its attendant losses, to secure a summer 
range of brush and sparse pasture ; but prefer rather to develop 
their stock in the luxuriant alfalfa fields or in the well-filled 
barns of the valleys, thus, to some extent, at least, unfitting 
them, or their progeny that inherit their disposition, for taking 
care of themselves on an average sheep range. 

The weeding out of the weakest, the survival of the fittest, 
, the habit of hunting for their own sustenance, acquired and in- 
herited by stock handled in this way, compensate for all losses 
sustained on the trip to the mountains, and is of immeasurable 
value to the wool grower who secures his breeding stock from 
such a source. 

The disposition and ability to " rustle" is transmitted to their 
progeny as much as any other quality, and with that trait thor- 
oughly fixed, all objections to the use of thoroughbreds disap- 
pear. 

In Southern CaUfornia the strong contingent of French blood 
has given a sheep somewhat too leggy; with stout shanks; thin- 
shouldered ; the quarters not well developed ; body, long and 
lank ; constitution, inferior to the American ; skin, wrinkly ; a 
heavy fleece of rather coarse, straight, gummy wool. The best 
flock-mas Lers are breeding away from these points by a free 
use of the modern American Merino, which gives an animal 
with shorter legs, a more compact and well-rounded body, a 
fleece of flner and longer wool, though, perhaps, not so heavy. 
A plain animal is generally sought after for a range sheep ; one 
with not above a single, heavy fold about the neck. 

The Cahfornia Merino ewe excels the average range Merino 
of the older States in fertility, and as a nurse, by five or ten per 
cent. Pacific coast flocks have long been the favorites in the 
interior as breeders, and for this purpose they have been trans- 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 237 

ported even to Minnesota and Western Nebraska. In Tehama 
County, ewes formerly raised one hundred psr cent, of lambs. 

General Management. — Eanges are not so generally fenced 
with wire as in Texas ; the flocks are larger, running from one 
thousand to three thousand. Wethers are separated from the 
ewes in lambing time, as they travel too much for them. 
Mutton is much more sought after than in Texas, consequently 
greater pains are taken to segregate the wethers intended for 
the shambles. During the winter the sheep are frequently not 
" banded" at all ; they run at large about the range. 

In very large flocks, in Southern California, the ewes are sep- 
arated into bands according to age — yearlings, two-year-olds, 
etc. • 

In the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, and in Southern 
California there are distinctly defined ranges for winter and 
summer. The great chain of the Sien-a Nevada is the mainstay, 
in summer, of the flocks on the plains, for a distance of four 
hundred miles north and south ; when the pasturage withers 
on the plains and foot-hills, they begin to ascend its slopes, grad- 
ually mounting liigher as the snow disappears, until they reach 
the rich, natural meadows lying deep in the double crest of the 
Sierra, where they spend the summer. One acre here will sup- 
port a sheep during the limited season. The mountain ranges 
between Kern and Los Angeles Counties have long been the re- 
sort of the flocks during droughts in Los Angeles, Ventura and 
Santa Barbara Counties. 

In the extreme northern and southern sections of the State 
there is less distinction between the winter and summer ranges, 
except as the sheep themselves naturally regulate their move- 
ments, coming lower down when the snow begins to fall on the 
summits. At the south, the shepherds aim to remove the flocks 
from the tenacious "adobe" soils in rainy weather ; there is 
danger of their bogging-down. The foot-hills are everywhere 
the favorite natural range in w inter, being of a firmer soil, with 
rounded and thinly wooded knolls and patches of chaparral 
affording browse and protection from storms. 

Some of the flocks of the great central basin, instead of sum- 
mering in the Sierra, are driven into the vast tule-swamps bor- 
dering the Sacramento and San Joaquin, which afford much 
coarse herbage. After the water retreats from these swamps 
the tules are sometimes burned to freshen the growth. Wheat 
sown in the ashes and trodden in by flocks of sheep driven to 



238 THE AMERICAN MERIKO 

and fro has been known to produce seventy bushels per acre. 
Flocks wintered on the black, deep soil of these tules get their 
wool much discolored ; it contrasts strangely with the white 
fleeces just brought down from the Sierra in autum.n. 

Only rams or small and choice flocks are fed or sheltered in win- 
ter, though in the northern, mountainous ranges, when a snow- 
fall lies on the ground a week or more, barley is scattered for 
thesn on the snow, at the rate of a half-pound per head. On 
the great wheat farms of the central plains no care is taken of 
the straw, and before the rainy season sets in it is burned in vast 
quantities. Within sight of the dome of the State Capitol I 
once saw a farmer, whose sheep were dying by the hundreds 
for lack of a little grain and the straw he had burned, construct 
a furnace and boil up the carcasses for hogs ! 

Breeding Flocks and Lambs. — Very much the same methods 
of management prevail as were described for Texas. The lamb- 
ing season comes somewhat earlier than in that State, however ; 
in Northern California it begins in February ; in Southern Cah- 
fornia, in January. In both sections it continues six weeks or 
two months. Ewes which "miss" in the autumnal coupling 
are put with the rams again in the spring, to drop their lambs 
from October 15th to November 15th. The ewes are nearly al- 
ways corraled at night in the lambing season, although some- 
times, when the corral has been allowed to become very foul, 
and there is no imminent danger from coyotes or other wild 
animals, they are simply ' ' camped " for the night near the head- 
quarters of the range. When there is six inches of manure in 
the corral and it has been rendered soft and thin by the long 
winter rains, it may well be imagined that lambing in such a 
place would be a miserable and disgusting business. Lambs are 
castrated when four to six weeks old. 

Lambs are weaned at the age of four or five months. They 
are either wholly separated from the ewes, or else they are 
" cross- weaned " — that is, the lambs of one flock are put with 
the mothers of another, etc. After a few weeks the flocks are 
corraled again, and lambs and ewes put by themselves. In the 
wooded and brushy regions of the Coast Eange and the high 
Sierras, however, it is difficult to keep flocks segregated, and 
they frequently run in masses as best they can. 

Shearing. — Indians are largely employed in this branch of 
the business, both north and south, and for herders, also ; they 
being more patient and gentle than Americans. An Indian 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 239 

shears about three sheep to the American's five. The price paid 
is fi^e or six cents per fleece with board (seven cents without). 
Indians and Mexicans frequently go in a chib or company, trav- 
ehng from ranch to ranch, under the command of a captain, 
who makes all their contracts, receives and divides the money, 
settles all disputes, and subjects all his followers to his com- 
mand. In the balmy climate of the Pacific coast, especially at 
the fall shearing, generally no shelter is needed except that af- 
forded by a clump of spreading live-oaks. Under these, long 
platforms are erected, and the swarthy shearers, with bared 
heals and breasts, their skins beaded with perspiration, bend- 
ing to their work in an aboriginal silence, keep the shears chok- 
ing in a not unmusical concert. 

In the arid climate of this coast, with its all-pervading dust, 
its sand-storms, its myriads of detached grass-seeds, with chaff 
and powdered foliage under foot, the fleeces get very dirty dur- 
ing the summer. A man who shears sixty sheep in the spring, 
will shear only fifty in the fall, though the fall fleece will prob- 
ably be only about half as heavy in actual wool. 

When the rains are not too severe, the spring shearing is done 
in March, in Southern California, and again in August ; in the 
north, the months are May and September. One farmer, in Men- 
docino County, tried the experiment of shearing his lambs about 
July 15th, to free them from the grass-seed, and the results were 
so good that he continued the practice. In Placer County I 
have seen sheep, that were shorn too early (the owners of large 
flocks have to hasten matters to finish lambing and shearing 
before the pasture dries up in the foot-hills, and the sheep get 
impatient to set out for the mountains), huddled close in squads 
of twelve to twenty in the little, pit-like depressions of the me- 
sas, a day or more at a time, during the long, di'iving rains ; and 
when the rains were over, so that the sheep could go out to graz- 
ing again, there would be from one to three or four dead sheep 
lying in each depression. 

Grades of Wool.— In California, with its hundreds of iso- 
lated vaUeys and its hundreds of resultant sharp climatic con- 
trasts — as, for instance, in going from semi-tropical, almost 
frostless Vacaville, a short distance over a low range to the cold 
ocean fogs and blustering winds of Marin — we find, perhaps, 
the most striking differences in wool values within short dis- 
tances. The prevalence of the burs of the yellow or bur clover 
in some localities, mostly lowlands, contributes to this differ- 



24Q THE AMEEICAK MEEIKO 

ence. There are six groups of wool counties : Sacramento and 
San Joaquin rivers, northern and southern coast, middle or foot- 
hill, and two mountain counties — Humboldt and Mendocino. 
They run about as follows : San Joaquin, free, thirteen and 
sixteen cents ; burry, eleven and thirteen cents ; southern coast, 
•twelve and sixteen cents ; northern, defective, fifteen and sev- 
enteen cents ; Sacramento, free, eighteen and twenty cents ; 
Calaveras and middle coim.ties, best, seventeen and twenty 
cents ; Humboldt and Mendocino, twenty and twenty-two cents. 

The spring shearing in the south is done very early to antici- 
pate the ripening of the alfileria and bur-clover seeds, which 
would injure the wool very much. In the fall there is no haste, 
for they wiU be in the wool at any rate. 

The northern wools are better grown than the southern ; they 
are brighter and freer from seeds and burs. Brightness results 
from the washings on the sheep's backs by the heavy rains of 
winter and spring. The shrinkage of the northern wools in 
scouring is less by ten to twenty per cent, than that of the south- 
ern chp. Even at the above prices a manufacturer complains, 
in the United States Economist, that " it costs me ninety-six 
cents to scour California wools ." The southern flock-masters, 
however, claim that they are compensated for this lower x^rice 
by the greater weight of tlieir fleeces. As a rule, the southern 
sheep are the better bred of the two. Against the favoring 
rains of the north, there is in the south a more abundant past- 
ure, especially bur clover and alflleria. The quality of wool 
throughout the State has improved progressively as the grade 
has advanced from the original Chourro or Mexican. 

There are seven estabHshments in San Francisco which scour 
wool before it is shipped East^ though some of them, I regret to 
learn, are about to be abandoned. Several years ago it was 
found that scoured wool could be shipped to the great mills at 
Cohoes, New York, at a price which would, and did, supplant 
the wools of Australia, heretofore principally depended on for 
a supply. 

The best California wool, greatly to the credit of the State, is 
manufactured at home. California blankets have a deserved 
and world-wide reputation. 

The United States Government Report, of 1884, gives the esti- 
mated wool-clip of 1880 as follows : Rams, fourteen pounds ; 
ewes, 6.33 pounds ; wethers, 8.11 pounds ; lambs, 5.40 pounds. 

Mutton Sheep. — The demand for mutton is so considerable 



FOE WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 241 

that nearly every flock has its separate " mutton band." When 
the rams are put into the breeding flocks in the fall, the old and 
otherwise undesirable ewes are culled out and tlirown into the 
wether or mutton flock. Wool being the primaiy object of 
sheep husbandry, the flock-master likes to cHng to his largest, 
finest wethers as long as possible ; hence, has arisen, as in Texas, 
the delusive maxim, " Old sheep for mutton." 

Wethers are never grain-fed, but after harvest they are turned 
on the wheat-stubble, six weeks or two months. So many heads 
are left by the wasteful machines used in harvesting, and so 
sound do they remain in the rainless months, that the stubble 
is rich feed ; and it is a common saying of the California farmer 
that his stubble must pay his taxes. 

American Merinos make better mutton than the French ; they 
stand herding better, are more compact and round-bodied, are 
better feeders, being not so dainty in their search for choice 
herbage. California breeders unanimously condemn the cross 
with the English sheep, except where mutton is decidedly more 
important than wool. 

At the fall shearing, old wethers, intended for the winter mar- 
ket, are sometimes left unshorn, as the j)rotecting fleeces will 
keep them in better condition during the long, cold rains. A 
majority of the ewes, and a great many wethers, are kept so 
long for shearing that they die of old age. 

The estimated average live weight of mutton sheep is one 
hundred and four pounds ; dressed, fifty-four pounds. 

Sheep on Wheat Farms. — A representative wheat-grower, in 
Tehama County, had fifteen thousand acres of wheat, and six- 
teen thousand sheep. After gleaning the stubble and cleaning 
off the weeds in the fall, they spend the winter on some rough 
lava-beds or mesas at the foot of the Sierra Nevada ; in the 
spring they are driven into the mountains to remain until after 
harvest. The yield of wheat on the virgin soil was forty bushels 
per acre, and after steady cropping for about fifteen years it still 
remained the same. Being asked how he kept up the fertility 
without manuring, he replied: "My sheep furnish manure 
yearly to the stubble-fields that fatten them before they are 
turned out for winter." 

Effects of Sheep on Pasture.— With the exception of a 
limited number of cattle-men, inimical to sheep, the testimony 
of California stock-men is, that sheep produce favorable effects 
on the wild grasses. Messrs. Miller and Lux, after twenty-five 



242 THE AMEKICAN MEEIi;rO 

years' experience, furnished the following statement to the 
United States Census agent : *' Ranges are benefited by sheep 
if the stock is judiciously grazed ; then they are sure to increase 
the yield and improve the quality. They must not be kept on 
too long in winter, so as to cut up the low land and tread out 
the roots, nor too heavily in spring, so as to prevent the grass 
from bearing seed. California land needs the packing that 
sheep give, and their tramping, when not excessive, prepares 
the soil to retain the surface rains to nourish better and more 
varied grasses. We have, most cai-efuUy, noted results, and 
know that, in California, land used for sheep with judgment is 
always improved." 

It is undeniable that sheep have not always been "used with 
judgment," and it is the result of my own obseiwations, ex- 
tended through a period of over five years, that, while they 
have increased tbe production of alfileria (locally known as 
"fileree"), and bur clover — two very valuable forage plants — 
they have contributed more than cattle, by their close cropping 
and by the consumption of seed, toward the destruction of wild 
oats and bunch-grass, which, in the Sierra foot-hills, are suc- 
ceeded by the worthless "squirrel-grass." 

On Pit River and Groose Lake, sheep have also very materially 
decreased the production of the bunch, red-top, rye, blue-joint 
and salt (alkali) grasses. Such I found to be the opinion of a 
majority of the ranchmen at the time of my visit to that re- 
gion in 1872. 

It is remarked by observant shepherds that their flocks drink 
less on wild grasses than on alfalfa, though there are certain 
salt or alkali grasses which increase their thirst. Alkali grasses 
destroy the fertility of some cows after six or eight years, and 
render bulls impotent after three or four ; but no such effects 
on sheep have been recorded. 

Sheep on Alfalfa. — Mr. J. T. McJunkin, of Hanford, a wool- 
grower of much experience, has kept as many as nine hundred 
to thirteen hundred head of sheep on one hundred acres of al- 
falfa the year round, except for about two months, when they 
were turned upon the wheat stubble. During those two months 
he cut his alfalfa once, and stacked the hay for the cold weather 
of winter, when the green feed would be short. In a very good 
season he has kept as high as fifteen sheep per acre, and thinks 
that even thirteen per acre are more profitable than wheat. He 
finds that there is great danger of sheep bloating if moved from 



FOR WOOL AXD mutto:n". 243 

short feed to rank alfalfa, and he avoids this by not allowing 
them to graze down one pasture too low before they are turned 
into another. He also keeps lumps of rook-salt in the pasture 
as a preventive. Sheep drink a great deal when fed on alfalfa 
hay. Owing to the great scarcity of pasturage in the winter of 
1881-2, Mr. McJunkin's neighbors reported a falling off of twen- 
ty-five per cent, in their clips ; but his remained at the custom- 
ary figure. For these facts I am indebted to an article in the 
Pacific Rural Press. 

In the Sierra Nevada. — The great annual migration of the 
flocks in the central basin up to the rich, natural meadows in 
the double crest of the Sierra, is the distinguishing characteris- 
tic of California sheep husbandry. In the spring, as soon as 
sheep begin to show decided indications of thirst — they drink 
little or nothing on the fresh feed of early spring — the shepherds 
consider that the time has arrived to start into the mountains. 
The sheep are made up into flocks of four thousand to eight 
thousand for the ascent, which occupies a month or six weeks. 
When arrived at the meadows they are divided into flocks of 
twenty-five hundred to three thousand, for the summer. It is 
calculated that au acre of meadow will support a sheep through 
the summer ; and that the fall clip will be increased by a pound 
and a half over what it would have been if the sheep had re- 
mained on the plains. When the coupling season arrives, rams 
are driven up in little flocks from the home-range on the plains. 
As soon as the first snow gives intimation of the approach of 
the rainy season the flocks are headed for the plains, but the 
descent is leisurely made. 

The " Sheep-Herder."— From the great number of "Dig- 
gers" and " Greasers" employed in the work of herding sheep, 
this occupation became degraded and vulgarized ; and no one 
in California speaks of the " shepherd"— it is only the prosaic 
" sheep-herder." The great sheep-runs of California, like those 
of Australia, seem to be a sort of mild form of Botany Bay for 
their respective mother countries. Old flock-masters will tell 
you, out of their long experience in either country, of dozens 
of men, college finished, perhaps, who themselves or their fami- 
lies banished from home — not, perhaps, like Barrington's pa- 
triots, " for their country's good " — but for the suppression and 
healing of scandal, and who are now harvesting their traditional 
and unhappy crop of wild oats, at the same time they watch the 
sheep upon the hills pick their's (Avenafatua) — " comrades of 



244 THE AMERICA N^ MERINO 

the wolf and owl." One of the great flock-masters on the Nas- 
cimiento told me that during one year he had employed on his 
ranch a bishop's son, a banker, an editor, a civil engineer, and 
a book-keeper — at least two of them being college graduates. 

Sometimes the corrals are simply enclosed with rambling 
strings of brush fence (the knaggy clumps of chapparal are 
easily pulled up with a yoke of oxen, and, being thrown to- 
gether, make a fence impassable except to a grizzly or a nimble 
coyote). Sometimes they are made of cotton- wood limbs set in 
a shallow trench around a square, and wattled with the smaller 
twigs or with willows. In these the manure accumulates a 
foot deep or more, and then the indolent fellow makes another 
corral, or else sets to work with a span of horses and a scraper 
and scrapes it out. After a rainless summer of six months, it 
is dry to the bottom and as loose as an ash-heap. The operation 
of scraping stirs up an odor which is as pungent as mustard and 
smells to heaven. The sun, which is never hidden by so much 
as a capful of cloud, riots in these exhalations, and the air is 
filled with a fertile dust. A huge hillock is heaped up as they 
heap up a hay-rick in Nebraska, as steep as it will lie and left 
to waste, becoming in years a guano-bed, a score of feet deep, 
or even deeper. They often scrape it out into a little ravine or 
gulch, and the winter rains flush them out, rolling down to 
flats already abundantly fertile (if they had water), or sheer into 
the channel of a stream immense volumes of this valuable 
manure. Wasteful Californians ! 

Once in a fortnight there comes to the shepherd from the 
great outside world a donkey-load of beans, coffee or tea, sugar, 
and flour — perhaps a newspaper or tvv'o. Besides this he sees 
no soul unless it may be a hunter, or a solitary cowboy looking 
for strayed stock. At night the supercilious coyote inspects and 
pollutes the corners of his habitation. The long and hungry 
scream of the California lion floats athwart his dreams, and 
perhaps he is awakened at midnight by the heavy lumbering 
crunch of the grizzly over his brushwood corral, and the piteous 
bleat of some sheep (sheep will bleat with pain sometimes), 
whose ham the monster is scooping out. In the moining he 
follows his gadding flock over the rounded wild-oat hills, dotted 
with live-oaks ; along the borders of the bright evergreen cJia- 
misal — too dense for his sheep to penetrate, but the minute 
flowers of which furnish pasture for myriads of bees ; and at 
evening on the shelves of plains and in the little valleys, among 
the moss-streamered oaks, and the whited, plumy tufts of the 



FOR WOOL AN'D MUTTOl^. 245 

bunch grass. Long thoughts are his as he lounges " mony a 
canty day " over the ripe and yellow mountains, which are 
frosted over, like a cake, with a tender lilac haze. Or, from 
some ' ' specular height " he looks down on the saturnine 
and awful desolation of late autumn ; the far dun reaches of 
rolling-tables, thinly flecked with dwarfish oaks, and the sharp- 
cut, purple peaks. Or, perhaps you will find him squatted 
with his faithful dog between his knees, while in the vast 
mustard plain around you cannot see a sheep, and only hear 
the multitudinous crackling and surging in the dry mustard. 
You will not heed his tatters, for his vagabond flock have led 
him many a chase through the sage and the rosemary of the 
adjacent foothills. There is no picturesque heirloom crook in 
his hand, but, instead, a plug of navy tobacco. This dissipates 
the poetry of the situation. Probably there is moored, even 
now, at San Francisco or San Diego, the ship from which he 
deserted. 

The "Dodge Gate."— The sheep of different owners often 
get mixed, especially in Southern California, when a high wind 
blows off the long Spanish moss ; they are very fond of this 
and scatter widely in search of it. To separate them, there is 
provided a large corral, with a very narrow and long lane lead- 
ing from it to two smaller ones. lu the narrowest j^lace is the 
" dodge-gate," in the middle of the lane and parallel with it ; 
the swinging end points toward the large corral. The sheep 
are driven into the large corral and are slowly forced, one at a 
time, through the lane, while a man standing at the gate moves 
it to this side or that, parting Smith's sheep from Jones'. ■ 

California needs fewer " dodge-gates," and more wire-fence 
and cultivated fields. 

Sheep in Vineyards. — The following paragraph is from the 
Fresno Republican : " Vineyardists should not forget the ad- 
vantage derived from pasturing sheep in the vineyard as soon 
as the grapes are harvested. Vineyards infested with insects 
that lay their eggs on the leaves or on the ground are easily ex- 
terminated in this way. The sheep eat the leaves if they are 
yet green, and thus destroy the eggs. By packing the ground, 
many insects and eggs are also destroyed there. This is the 
best way to destroy the leaf hoppers, which some years are so 
destructive in our vineyards. That this year there have been 
none of these hoppers to do any harm, we have principally to 
thank the sheep for. After the frost has killed the leaves and 
they become dried, the sheep will not eat them." 



246 THE AMEBIC AK MERINO 

Prei-araiion of Wool for Shipping.— Freights by railroad 
are one cent and a half per pound on wool costing twelve cents 
per pound or under ; one cent and three-quarters per pound for 
that costing from twelve cents to eighteen cents per pound, and 
two cents per pound for that costing over eighteen cents per 
pound, but the quantity of the latter is not very large. By ship 
to New York, around Cape Horn, it is one cent per poand. The 
freight on scoured wool is three cents per pound. 

The sand-storms, the dust of the long, rainless summer, the 
grease created by the great heat, and the abundant seeds and 
burs, make the unwashed California wools veiy dirty. It is 
claimed in the East that the spring clip shrinks, in scouring, 
sixty-seven to seventy per cent. , and the fall chp, seventy-two 
to seventy-five per cent. California wool is packed in com- 
pressed bales in its uncleaned state, pressed as hard as a block 
of wood, and the bales bound with iron hoops. In this condi- 
tion it is shipped East for sale. Ohio, Pennsylvania and other 
similar wool, when received for sale in the Eastern market, is 
opened out and graded ; each quality being piled separately in 
the warehouse, so that buyers can easily examine it. California 
wool, on the contrary, is kept in the compressed bales, standini^ 
on end, with the burlap cut on top about a foot in lengih and 
w^idth to expose the wool. It is not difficult to imagine a buyer 
turning from looking at the sightly piles of bright fleece-washed 
Ohio and Pennsylvania wool to examine California wool in the 
condition above mentioned ; perhaps eighty per cent, of earth 
and burs, with twenty per cent, of wool. It is a well-known 
fact that the eye must be pleased in buying raw products, as 
well as in the purchase of manufactured goods. 

To remedy this, seven scouring mills have been erected in 
San Francisco, which, it is claimed, effect a great saving to the 
wool-growers. To illustrate, we will take one hundred pounds 
of wool in San Francisco, costing fifteen cents per pound in its 
crude state. It will shrink sixty- five per cent, in scouring, 
leaving thirty-five pounds of clean wool, which would cost near 
forty-three cents per pound. The same wool shipped and 
scoured in the East, adding freight — two cents per pound — 
would cost seventeen cents per pound, or near forty-nine cents 
per pound, scoured. Add freight — two cents per pound — to the 
San Francisco scoured wool, and it is in the Eastern market at 
forty-five cents per pound, while the Eastern scoured costs 
forty -nine cents, a difference of four cents per pound in favor 
of San Francisco. 



FOR WOOL AliTD MUTTON. 247 

Wool-growers all over the coast could materially help the sale 
of their wool by being a little more careful iu sacking all dirty 
tag locks, of which there are always more or less, especially in 
"year fleeces ;" these should be taken off before the fleece is 
tied up, as the injury to the price is always more than the gain 
in weight. Marking with tax is also very objectionable, as the 
ordinary process of scouring wiU not take off the tar, and the 
locks of wool to which it is attached must be sorted very care- 
fully from the fleece, and as they are almost worthless, manu- 
facturers must so figure on them in making their purchases. 

It is also a great mistake to shear and sack wool when it is 
damp with the spring rains ; this often causes mold, and a loss 
of several cents in the price received per pound. 

Items. — The amount of land required for the grazing of a 
sheep is, variously estimated by different shepherds, from two 
and a half acres to four acres per head, even on the rich pas- 
tures of Southern California. But the reader should bear in 
mind that an immense quantity of grass is consumed by the 
ground-squirrels, the gophers and the agricultural ants, which 
are three of the worst pests of the State. 

The losses from all causes — poisonous weeds, disease, winter 
storms, dogs and wild animals — are estimated at 7.8 per cent, 
yearly, which is probably au underestimate. One owner, with 
twelve thousand, one hundred and fifty sheep, computed his 
losses from coyotes at one thousand dollars a year. This, not 
altogether by direct slaughter, but also by the corralling which 
their presence compels, which causes foul wool (bringing a 
lower price, loss of condition, and the engendering of disease.) 

Sheep husbandry, in this climate, has been subject to great 
vicissitudes. Though very healthy, sheep are occasionally laid 
waste by drought, and by the rapacity of man, which causes 
overstocking of the pastures. In the ' ' Government Report," the 
losses in Southern California, in 1877, are placed at two million, 
five hundred thousand. In the winter of 1881-2, thousands of 
lambs fell beneath the hammer-stroke at birth, this resort being 
the only means of saving the mothers' lives. I have known 
forty per cent, of the lambs to perish in a cold rain in the Eel 
River Mountains. 

A Sample Flock. — "We will take a flock in Tehama County, 
consisting of two hundred rams, six thousand ewes, seven thou- 



348 THE AMERICAN MERIN"0 

sand wethers, two thousand lambs ; total, fifteen thousand, two 
hundred. 

15,000 acres of land leased, at twenty-five cents per acre $ 3,750 

Equipment iu vehicles, harness, tools, etc 300 

Four horses, vporth 400 

Six dogs, worth » 100 

Investment in plant 4,550 

Investment in flocks 31,000 

Grand total investment 35,550 

Six men employed throughout the year, at SlOO per 

month; live', at $25 per month each, board included. 2,700 

At shearino- time, five extra men for fifteen days at 
one dollar per day (to serve at corrals, handle 
and prepare all for shearers ) $75 

Shearers, at five cents per fleece (13,000 fleeces at last 

shearing) 650 

725 

Total expenses for labor 3,425 

78,000 pounds of wool sold, at twenty-seven cents (1879) $21,060 
1,000 wethers, at $2.50 2,500 

Total 23,560 

Yearly outlay (land leased and interest on flocks) $ 6,850 



But the average profit is reckoned at sixty cents per head. 

Hay for Sheep. — The fine native grasses of North-eastern 
Cahfomia are well suited for sheep. In hauHng hay to the 
stack, or barn, some farmers use racks from sixteen to twenty 
feet long, eight to ten feet wide and four feet high. The sides are 
made of small rods, usually willow, placed fourteen to sixteen 
inches apart. They are made in this manner so as to haul short, 
fine hay and to be able to work in windy weather. The other 
style of hay-rack is made just the same, except the sides are dis- 
pensed with and posts are put up at each comer and the sides. 

In Sierra, American, Clover and Indian vaUeys, the greater 
part of the hay is put into bams, some of which are large enough 
to hold from two hundred and fifty to three hundred tons. A 
great many of these barns are so arranged that the wagons can 
be unloaded in the top of the barns. To do this they make use 
of a drive-way, in the form of an inclined plane, by which the 
wagons are either drawn up with block and tackle or the team 
is driven in at one end of the bam and out at the other. The 
sides of the rack are frequently fitted with hinges so they can 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 249 

be dropped down and the hay pushed off. A great many farm- 
ers use the Jackson fork and Church hay-carrier, which is fixed 
to run at the peak of the roof. The wagon is driven across the 
end of the barn or through the middle, crosswise. The hay is 
carried up with the fork to the carrier and then run back into 
the barn and unloaded at any point wished. Excepting in those 
valleys named, the great bulk of the hay is stacked, in some 
places covered, but much the greater part is not ; the average 
width of the stacks is twenty feet, the length, from one hundred 
to one hundred and seventy-five feet, the height, before it set- 
tles, is from twenty to thirty feet. By far the greater part of 
the stacking is now done by horse-power ; either the Jackson 
fork is used with a derrick, or nets, either rolling or lifting ; but 
the latter kind is most frequently used. 

The Winters' patent net and derrick has been partially intro- 
duced in Lassen and Modoc Counties during the past two years. 
Its mode of operation is to use two half-nets in the wagon rack 
and lift out each one separately, swing around on the stack, and 
drop the load by opening the net in the center. 

Nevada. — Northern Nevada presented, originally, a very fair 
opening to the sheep-breeder and grazier ; there were fine ranges 
of bunch-grass, sand-grass, white sage, and stretches of meadow 
furnishing a varied and profuse feed of wire, red-top and rye 
grasses, with tolerable supplies of water. In the south the 
deserts were skirted with sand, bunch and gietta grasses and 
stunted white sage ; but water was scarce. When the vast over- 
flow of stock from California occurred in 1870, in consequence 
of drought, all these ranges were greatly overstocked and the 
pasturage injured. In a single drive in the south, eight thou- 
sand sheep perished from thirst in five days. On many places 
the seed was eaten up and the grasses entirely disappeared, the 
greasewood and other shrubs were stunted, and on wide areas 
the valuable white sage was wholly extirpated. 

Nevada, Utah and Idaho are alike in this, that their elevated 
summer ramies are capable of " carrying " more stock than can 
be supported by the natural herbage of such lowlands and val- 
leys as are suitable for winter grazing. This compels winter 
feeding. 

Systems of Management. — These may be divided into the 
nomadic, the semi-nomadic and the fixed. In the nomadic 
system the shepherd slowly works the band in at sunset to 
some spring suflB.cing for himself and horse ; and, if the weather 



250 THE IMEEICAK MERINO 

is clear, he simply "rounds up" or assembles the sheep on a 
level stretch of ground, assisted by one or more mongrel dogs 
common in Nevada, called " shepherd dogs." The herder sleeps 
by the flock. Aroused by the continual barking of the watch- 
ful dogs, he may find the flock scattered by the approach of a 
coyote ; or, chiUed by a sudden storm of drifting snow, they 
may have moved off in a sohd body. Without a coiTal he can- 
not hold the flock in a storm ; they will ' ' drift " until a lull 
occurs, or they reach some protecting depression, or huddle 
behind a knoll. In their blind efforts to escape the cold, they 
may crowd into a gulch or a " dry wash," and large numbers be 
suffocated. Even if the shepherd should happen to have a sage- 
brush corral, unless the direction of the wind was toward the 
opening, he could. not force the sheep to enter. 

Lambing and Shearing. — These are over about the last of 
May. If some stationary sheep-man near by has a set of dip- 
ping-vats, they are hired for the use of the nomadic flock ; or, 
more commonly, the nomadic flocks are simply anointed with 
grease and mercurial ointment ; or, perhaps, not treated at all. 
All classes of the sheep, except the rams, are now moved off 
together to the summer ranges. About the 25th of September 
another shearing occurs ; for, with few exceptions, semi-annual 
shearings prevail in Western Nevada. 

More Permanent Systems.— Where some land is held in fee- 
simple, or by squatter's right, this forms a winter headquarters ; 
and frequently there are fenced fields here for meadow and for 
winter ranging for ewes and lambs. The allowance of hay is 
about one pound and three-quarters a day per lamb. In 1879-80 
feed had to be given about six months, on account of the 
unusual severity of the winter. Some winters none at all is 
required. 

The movements to and from summer ranges are about the 
same as above detailed. 

Wool ajstd Mutton. — The American Merino is deemed the 
best breed for the climate and pasture of Nevada, though the 
best flock-masters do not desire to go beyond a three-fourths or 
seven-eighths grade. Many flocks have reached this standard, 
and show good handling. The close fleece of the Merino is a 
protection against the storms, and is less liable to be pulled out 
by the knaggy shrubs of the mountains than is the long wool 
of the English breeds. Besides, the latter are not adapted to 
these arid wastes and the alkali dust ; they become lank ; they 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOJf. 251 

cannot endure the close herding ; their descendents steadily fall 
off both in size and weight of fleece. The American Merino 
does better than the French Merino of Southern California. 

The oftener sheep are changed from one pasture to another, 
and the less frequently they are corraled or camped on the same 
ground — flittered with their droppings — the better will be their 
condition. Even the Merinos are very susceptible to disease 
when herded in such large flocks as are necessary under the 
present systems. 

The scab acarus, or insect, seems to lurk in tufts of wool, 
bushes, or sticks — even in the manure, where sheep infested 
with it have been assembled a number of times. An instance 
is mentioned where a corral was occupied by scabby sheep in 
June, then remained untenanted until October, when some 
rams in perfect health were kept in it for a few nights, and 
were observed to sleep frequently in a corner where the sweep- 
ings of the shearing-table had been thrown. They contracted 
the scab in such malignant form that they had to be dipped, 
though they had not come in contact with any affected sheep. 

Where the sheep are well graded up and kept in even condi- 
tion through the year, the wool is as good as that of Cahfomia. 
The average of the State is given thus : Rams, thirteen pounds ; 
wethers, seven and three-quarter pounds ; ewes, six and a half 
pounds ; yearlings, five and a quarter pounds, when shorn only 
once a year. Mutton sheep average one hundred pounds, live 
weight ; fifty pounds, dressed. 



CHAPTEE XXV. 

SYSTEMS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY, Continued. 

Oregon— Introduction of the Merinos.— The Hon. John 
Minto, of Marion County, Oregon, furnished the United States 
Department of Agriculture a very complete history of the in- 
troduction of the various breeds of sheep into that State, from 
which I extract a few items. The first Merinos were brought 
to Oregon in 1848 by Mr. Joseph Watt, of Amity ; there were 
seven pure Saxons and six high-grade Americans. Others were 
brought, in 1851, by Hiram Smith ; in 18§4, by Dr. Talmie ; in 



252 • THE AMEEICAJ^ MERINO 

1858, by Martin Jesse — the last named being McArthur Austra- 
lian Merinos, imported into San Francisco by J. H. Williams, 
the United States consul at Sydney. In 1830, Rockwell and 
Jones imported some pure-blood Merinos from Vermont. In 
1861, Donald McLeod brought one hundred and fifty thorough- 
bred Merinos from Vermont across the plains. After that date, 
large numbers of pure American Merinos and some very fine 
French Merinos were brought to Oregon by different parties. 

California and Oregon, from their differences in climate, are, 
to a certain extent, supplementary to each other. In disastrous 
years of drought the sheep are driven out of California, and the 
following seasons they flow back. In 1850, 1851 and 1861, the 
movement was toward the Southern State, eighty thousand 
going over from Willamette valley alone. For several years 
after 1864, California sent sheep to Oregon. 

Conditions and Modes of Sheep Husbandry.— From a very 
able paper contributed by Hon. John Minto to the Willamette 
Farmer, I extract the following paragraphs : 

"From east of the Cascades to Western Kansas, and from 
Middle Texas to Alaska, is all clothing wool country, for which 
the Improved American Merino is the best known breed. The 
portion of coast moistened by the winds of the Pacific, now oc- 
cupied as wheat fields, needs, as I have indicated, something 
approaching English methods of husbandry, both as to wheat 
and sheep, to make it carry combing-wool sheep." 

***** 

" Western Oregon can excel, both in long combing and in 
fine clothing wools ; but our experience proves that combing 
wool sheep require constant care on the part of the owners, to 
keep them in proper condition. There are a few localities in 
Western Oregon of which this is not true. There are a few 
ranges, of limited extent, that are better adapted to long wooled 
sheep than to any other. There are also farmers who so keep 
their flock, under conditions generally not favorable, that they 
bring to market a very good article of combing wool. But such 
are exceptional men at present. The general condition of the 
climate of Western Oregon, and "the pasturage furnished either 
naturally or by the help of the farmer, are such that there is a 
steady deterioration from an average standard of Cots wold, 
Leicester, or New Oxford sheep. The flock grows gradually 
more and more leggy in appearance ; the wool becomes shorter, 
drier and less lustrous ; and in many cases the sheep, while com- 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 253 

paratively young, lose considerable of this wool before ordinary 
shearing time." 

***** 

"It is found, in practice, that in a flock of mixed breeds 
the long-wooled keep on the outside of the others in search 
of feed. Observation proves that when the short-jointed, 
round-bodied Merino grade, weighing one hundi*ed and thirty 
pounds live weight, has fed to its satisfaction and is ready to 
lie down, the long-wooled, weighing one hundred and eighty 
pounds, has not had feed according to the requirements of its 
nature and size, and, in consequence, is restless at camping 
time. During feeding houi's, such sheep require the constant 
care of the herder to prevent them from leading the flock to 
daily travel faster and further than is good for it. Then, when 
the season renders it diflScult for a medium sized sheep to get a 
fair living — a condition suitable to growing fine wool of the 
best quality — the combing-wool sheep is not getting the amount 
of feed necessary to keep its wool in healthy growth, so both 
wool and sheep are deteriorating. On fresh range this is not 
the case, and for awhile a very good staple of long-wool can bo 
grown on such range, but the causes I have indicated very soon 
begin to operate, with results that fully justify the wool-grow- 
ers for breeding more and more towards the clothing-wool 
sheep." 

It is Mr. Minto's opinion that sheep husbandry in Oregon is 
not BO well conducted as it was in the earlier years of that in- 
dustry, when the pastures w^ere fresh and were devoted entirely 
to the flocks and herds. Since wheat farming has assumed a 
commanding importance, many farmers keep their sheep chiefly 
as gleaners of the stubble and to rid the fallow of wild oats, sor- 
rel and other weeds, where they frequently suffer for water ; 
and in consequence of this, and short feed during the succeeding 
winter, there is a tendency toward deterioration and dryness of 
fleece. 

Effect of Alkali on the Fiber. — In Eastern publications ref- 
erence is frequently made to the assumedly established fact that 
a great deal of the wool grown west of the hundredth meridian 
is weakened by the alkali which prevails more or less in the soil 
over a great portion of the Far West. This may, or it may not, 
be " trade capital" with the Jewish and other wool-commission 
houses. Any dust in the fleece, alkaline or other, is injurious 
to it, from the dryness and friction, which causes the rough- 



254 THE AMERICAN MERINO 

ening and discoloration of the fiber. But that the presence of 
alkali in the wool produces any deleterious chemical effect is, 
at least, as a Scotch jury would say, " not proven." 

To test this matter thoroughly, Mr. Thomas T. Lang, of Rock- 
ville, Oregon, instituted a careful and extensive series of exper- 
iments by rubbing alkaline soil upon the sheep and into the 
fleece, taking care, in the meantime, however, to keep the sheep 
in a thoroughly good and thriving condition. In a letter to the 
Wool 3Ianufa[:turers' Bulletin, of Boston, after describing his 
experiments, he states that " the dirt was scoured out, leaving a 
sound, strong fiber." It is true, as he asserts in this communi- 
cation, that " the character of wool is dependent upon the graz- 
ing faciUties ; its strength depsndmg upon the continued pro- 
gressive character of the economy of each sheep." In support 
of this proposition, which can be corroborated by hundreds of 
shepherds out of their own experience, he mentions that on 
February 10, 1879, there came eighteen inches of snow, which 
lay on the ground for fourteen days, more or less. Two flocks, 
that he had at a distance from home, went without feed the 
most of this time, and after the snow melted and they began to 
find fresh grass in abundance, the fleeces slipped off of them, a 
joint having been formed by their long fast. Of course, no 
alkah had been flying for some months, and no part of this re- 
sult could be attributed to its effects. 

But it is necessary to present some opposing testimony. From 
advance chapters of Wade's "Wool Facts," printed in the Amer- 
ican Sheep-breeder, I take the following - 

"Dead tip is prevalent in all Merino wools, if the sheep are 
kept in immense flocks, even if grown in countries where past- 
ure is fairly good— that is, a continuous sod. The rains, to 
which large flocks are subject, wiU by long continuance destroy 
the yolk on the outer surface of the fleece, and the wear and 
tear by rubbing together will destroy the natural lubricant, and 
decay at once sets in. Dead tip is simply wool which is de- 
cayed, or rather from which the life has departed. While this 
wool, or rather the tip, will scour easy, it will not retahi the 
dye which it readily takes, and it is a source of great uneven- 
ness in fine, solid-colored, face-finished goods, as the color, 
even of indigo, is removed by finishing, and the surface has a 
gray appearance when shaded across the face of the goods. 
The French and English manufacturers must have learned this 
fact, for we do not see this defect in their finest goods, which 
are very uniform. 



FOR WOOL AN-D MUTTON". 255 

" It is in our territorial wools that dead tip is most prevalent. 
It is most common in the regions where bunch grass is the 
native growth. Where there is bunch grass there is bare 
ground, and where there is bare ground there will be imperfect 
wool. The yolk is the natural protector of wool, and will turn 
rain if unmixed by other substances, but when dirt falls on the 
sheep and intermixes with the yolk in the wool it will absorb 
moisture — that is, the dust will absorb the moisture, and by re- 
maining moist will destroy the yolk or animal grease to the 
extent that it penetrates. In some localities, where flocks are 
large and exposure great, this penetrates to the skin of the 
sheep and frowsy wool is the result. Frowsy wool is that 
which has lost its nature, thereby destroying both the luster 
and felting properties, the animal grease having been driven 
from it or consumed by the dirt with which it is loaded, leaving 
the wool tender and freed from all that gives it its strength, 
and that which gives it its value as a material for clothing, 
either for the sheep or the human family." 

The only remedy for this would seem to be the cultivation of 
tame grasses and a close sod. 

Beasts of Prey.— Old shepherds have acquired much skill 
in tracing and trapping the various beasts and birds which prey 
on their flocks, If an eagle has done the work, there will be no 
large bones broken in the carcass ; the flesh will be torn off in 
a ragged way, and there will nearly always be a few large, 
downy feathers lying about. If the ground is soft, coyotes and 
wild cats will leave their tracks in the mud. Panthers and 
grizzly bears generally carry off the carcass, and cover up what- 
ever may be left, with grass or leaves. Coyotes and wild cats 
catch lambs by the head or throat ; after a coyote has visited 
the flock at night, ten or fifteen lambs will frequently be found 
dead ; bitten through the top of the head, perhaps, or a hole 
cut through the side to the heart and entrails. The coyote is a 
most fastidious and gratuitous assassin ; he either slaughters 
many more than he requires, or else he wishes only a few quaffs 
of blood warm from the heart of each victim. 

After much experimenting with various traps and poisons, 
strychnine has been found to be the most efficacious for all 
classes of carnivora. The best way to handle it is to cut the 
meat into mouthfuls, about the size of a hen's egg, and put a 
grain or less of strychnine in a very small bit of tissue paper, 
which, when rolled up, is no larger than a grain of wheat. 
Then pour a little melted lard over them ; cut a hole to the 



256 THE AMERICAN" MERTN^O 

center of each piece of meat, and then push a paper of poison 
in deep and close up the orifice. In this way the meat will not 
be made bitter by the strychnine, and the animal will not be 
deterred from swallowing it. The shepherd prepares forty or 
fifty baits this way, and thrusts a sharp stick into each. Late 
in the afternoon he starts out, dragging with one hand a beef's 
or hog's " pluck" on the ground in a wide circle, and carrying 
the baits with the other. Every hundred yards or so he sets a 
stick in the ground, which holds the bait a few inches above the 
surface, where the beasts will find it readily. Even if no car- 
casses are found, the quiet which reigns in the flock for several 
weeks gives the shepherd satisfactory evidence that the poison 
has done good work. 

General Remarks. — Under very close pasturing with sheep, 
some kinds of wild grasses quickly disappear ; but other plants 
— especially the alfileria, volunteer in place of them ; and if 
nature is assisted a little with some seeds of white clover, nar- 
row-leaved plantain (rib grass) or other good forage plants, a 
pasture will be created better than the original. 

The average annual loss among adult sheep — ^from various 
causes, is placed at 11.08 per cent. The diseases which prevail 
in Oregon are scab, fluke disease (locally called "leeches," and 
treated with charcoal and salt), "blind staggers," "scours" 
(locally, alum and wheat bran are given). To prevent the at- 
tacks of the sheep gad-fly, the Oregon flock-master bores two- 
inch holes in a large log and throws salt into them, with tar 
smeared at the top ; the sheep in licking the salt smear their 
noses with the tar. 

One method of preparing wethers for market is to let them 
run on the green wheat — which is very rank in the fall and 
winter — until midwinter or thereabout ; then finish them off 
with bright, green hay, cut in the blossom, and a daily feed of 
about a pint of oats and two ounces of wheat per head. They 
do not injure the wheat, which at harvest will look as well as 
that which was not depastured, and yield thirty bushels per 
acre. 

Merinos from California and Australia are found to be more 
hardy and prolific than those from Vermont, doubtless because 
they are already acclimated. In Oregon — as nearly everywhere 
in the Far West — a sheep above a three-fourths or seven-eighths 
grade of Merino is not desired. 

The average clip per head is about the same as in California. 
It is stated that sheep reared to maturity m Western Oregon 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 257 

and then removed to Eastern Oregon, will increase their yield 
of wool. 

Washington Territory.— The natural grasses and forage 
plants are rye grass, bunch grass, goose grass, four or five kinds 
of slough grass, blue-joint, cane grass, alfileria, white sage, wil- 
low, ross, grease wood and broom sage, besides rushes in wet 
land. 

Sheep in Washington Territory have encountered bitter oppo- 
sition from the cattle-men. "A band of scabby sheep at every 
watering-place"; *' Cattle owners running from a pestilence 
— sheep " — are the phrases one encounters. The original stock 
were the so-called *' native" sheep of Oregon, bred up from 
California sources to Merinos. W^ithin the last twenty yeai-s 
many full-blood Merino rams have been brought in from Cali- 
fornia and Vermont. 

Rams run in the flocks from November 1st to Christmas, in 
about the same proportion as eveiywhere under the careless 
husbandry of the Far West; from two to three rams to the 
hundred ewes. Lambing is in April and May ; shearing, in May 
and June. 

In winter the flocks are generally close-herded where there 
is both feed and shelter. Some hay is stacked for severe 
weather, and they are corraled at night. During summer — 
until the grass dries up on the plains — they range at large, a 
herder with each flock. When the shearing is finished and the 
prairie pasture exhausted, they are driven to the mountains. 

Scab is very prevalent south of Snake River, and is the only 
troublesome disease. The losses a^-e caused mainly by scarcity 
of feed, winter exposure and wild animals. The estimated 
average annual loss of adult sheep is twelve per cent. 

Sheep in the "Chinook." — Sometimes there falls a sudden 
and deep snow, attaining the depth of even two feet. Horses 
on the hills come down to the bunch grass and obtain feed in 
abundance by pawing ; cattle browse on grease wood, willows 
and sage ; but the sheep huddle helplessly under the junipers 
and refuse to venture forth. But when the storm is ended, a 
mass of white clouds will be seen flying overhead ; on the west- 
ern horizon is a bank of dark-blue clouds ; and fitful gusts of 
wind — now warm, now cold (the welcome " chinook" ) — begin 
to blow from the west. The patient sheep smell the salt m the 
air ; they 1« ok up at the junipers overhead, which now and then 
throw off a load of snow from their bending boughs upon their 



258 THE AMERICAi^ MERIXO 

backs. In the afternoon they scatter over the bills, wherever 
the snow, being thinner, has already disappeared ; soon every 
ravine, valley and canon is roaring with snow-water ; a Japa- 
nese spring is at the doors ; and in a day or two the snow has 
wholly disappeared. 

Idaho. — The grasses and herbage in this Territory are about 
the same as those mentioned for Washington. The sheep have 
been brought in mostly from California and Oregon on the west, 
and Utah on the east and south. The American Merino blood 
has steadily gained on the British and Mexican, as it was found 
better adapted to conditions of soil and climate than any other, 
until now the majority of the flocks in Idaho are from three- 
fourths to seven-eighths Merino. 

Flocks generally number about fifteen hundred ; it is unprofit- 
able to employ a man to care for a smaller number, while a larger 
flock would scatter and become more subject to the attacks of 
eagles, coyotes, mountain lions and wild cats. From May to 
July they are moving up into the hills, where the gi'ass and 
water are in more abundant supply ; from September to Novem- 
ber they are working slowly down to the plains and meadows. 
They are not corraled except for shearing, dipping or counting. 
Blooded rams have sheds within a pasture, and for about six 
weeks before service begins they receive hay, oats and perhaps 
roots. They run with the ewes at night from November 15th 
to January 1st, to bring on lambing in April. The lambing 
season is earlier in Western Central Idaho, though attended 
.with risks ; the object being to secure early mutton lambs and 
strong growth for those destined to be wintered. 

Hay is cut from fenced " claims " and wheat " in the dough," 
to cure for winter feeding ; it is given mostly to ewes and lambs 
when snow lies long on the ground — an infrequent occurrence. 
Grown sheep receive three to three and a half pounds of hay per 
day ; lambs, one and a half to two pounds. Some wheat straw 
is given to them, but it is found too constipating for continued 
use. 

Severe storms early in April and late in October, followed by 
cold, while the fleeces are saturated with moisture, are a draw- 
back to sheep husbandry in the western part of Idaho. In this 
region the annual loss among adult sheep is estimated at fifteen 
per cent. ; and at five per cent, from storms, and ten per cent, 
from wild animals and dogs. For the whole Territory, the loss 
is estimated at ten per cent. The loss from disease is two per 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 259 

cent. ; from storms, four per cent. ; wild animals, three per 
cent. ; poisonous weeds and snake-bites, one per cent. As in aU 
these mining regions of the West, there is a small local demand 
for mutton for mining towns and camps and for military gar- 
risons. It is said that the Indians on the reservations refuse 
mutton. 

Montana.— This vast Territory has a climate which, though at 
times very severe on the elevated ranges, is generally favorable 
for sheep, being softened by the friendly "chinook" blowing 
over from the Japanese Kuro Siwo, or warm stream. There is a 
great extent of good average grazing, consisting principally of 
the bunch grasses, of which the most highly esteemed kinds are 
the Boutelona oligostachya and the B. hirsuta, the buffalo grass 
(Buchloe dactyloides), red-top, wild rye, blue-joint, and wild 
oats. Greasewood and white sage are hardly known north and 
west of Judith Valley. The grass does not grow — with the ex- 
ception of that on moist or wet lands— more than about four 
months of the year. A peculiar feature of the bunch grass of 
Montana is that while it is apparently cured early in the season, 
from the latter part of July to the middle of August, when the 
range presents the brownish-gray appearance of dead grass, a 
close inspection shows about three or four inches of green and 
growing grass near the gi'ound, which possesses surprising 
strength and nourishing qualities, while the top portion, having 
cured early and during the dry season, retains all its original 
strength. The grass remains in this condition until the frosts 
and snows of December appear. 

Montana may be considered as preeminently the home of the 
bunch grass, as California is of the fileree. New Mexico of the 
grama, Arizona of the gietta, Texas of the mesquite, and the 
Missouri Valley of the buffalo grass. 

It is only ten years since the first sheep were brought into 
Montana, and last year the wool clip was over three million 
pounds. The climate gives the finest fiber to the wooJ, and the 
sheep seem hardy and healthy. Last year the deaths were only 
two per cent, in the flocks. Many of the ewes have twins. 

Some of the owners of the larger flocks may be mentioned : 
Geo. Myers & Bro., Perkins Eussel, Poindexter & Orr, J. M. 
Sharpe, Crane, Headly & Co., McClintock & Dowd. The sheep 
owned by Paris Gibson & Son are o2 the Campbell stock, ot 
Vermont, noted for their long or delaine wool, and their free- 
dom from gum and black-top. Indeed, this is more or less 



260 THE AMERICAN" MERIISrO 

characteristic of Montana flocks in general. And it has been 
found by experienced flock-masters that, to withstand most 
successfully the severe cold of that region, the sheep should be 
comparatively free from wrinkles and yolk. 

It is the testimony of an experienced flock-master that tracts 
of land upon and around which his sheep had been corraled 
until they were so dry and bare that the dust raised by the 
sheep could be seen a mile distant, next spring, much to his 
surprise, were covered with bunch grass thicker and stronger 
than ever before, the bunches being closer together. Yet there 
is much variation in this respect in different parts of Montana ; 
in some places the stock, particularly cattle, pull up much 
valuable grass by the roots. 

Management of Flocks. — This is much the same as that 
heretofore described for Oregon and California, with variations 
to adapt it to the colder climate and ruder civilization of this 
inland region. Medium, rather than very fine- wooled sheep, are 
considered most profitable. The wool is remarkably free from 
burs and dirt ; and the sheep are very healthy, though the scab 
is prevalent and requires the same rigorous treatment for its 
eradication as elsewhere. Some hay and shelter are provided 
for winter. Fresh pasture is reserved for ewes in the lambing 
season, which comes the last of April and in May. Shearing is 
done without previous washing, and dipping follows shearing. 

The sheep of Montana, being largely of California origin, arc 
generally good ; they will average above one-half Merino in 
grade ; are valued at about three dollars a head as wool-pro- 
ducers ; wethers, three dollars and twenty-fivo cents. At ma- 
turity the mutton sheep weighs one hundred and five pounds, 
live weight ; fifty-two pounds, dressed. 

Grub in the head and " dropsy " are sources of limited loss. 
W. H. Peck, of Fort Maginnis, in a recent letter, says : " Abouj 
two weeks ago, I had about three hundred sheep poisoned by. 
some poisonous weed. I succeeded in saving all but three by 
bleeding them, and giving each sheep two tablespoon fuls 
of vinegar. My experience may help some one else out." What 
the poison was, Mr. Peck does not state. 

The Montana Wool- Growers^ Association Bulletin gives the 
following advice as to the preparation of wool for market : 

' ' Good, clean bags should be used ; those known as ' ' machine 
sewei" have closer seams and keep the wool cleanest. Plenty 
of good, strong twine should be ready at shearing time, thus 



FOR WOOL AND ML'TTOls". 

g i 8!&lli!JKffitli{t'l'lll l ll!i)!l 



261 







362 THE AMERIGAK MERINO 

avoiding the necessity of using strands of rope^ strips of bark, 
aixd such substitutes, 'because the twine gave out.' It would 
be well if growers would pack their buck, and also the Very 
coarse fleeces, each by themselves ; probably, however, the pres- 
ent practice of packing all together may give the grower some 
slight advantage over the buyer ; but it is probable that separate 
packing will finally be generally adopted. When scab is all 
through a band, it is hardly of any use to try to separate the best 
from, the worst ; but where there is only a percentage of scabby 
fleeces they should be packed by themselves, as their presence 
among the sound wool will perhaps condemn the whole, in the 
eyes of the buyer. But do not let a grower be entirely discour- 
aged if he is unlucky enough to have a scabby band. The scab 
can be cured before the next season, and if he will pav proper 
attention to doing up his wool as carefully as he would if sound, 
he will obtain better results than perhaps he expects. In these 
cases pack the loose wool by itself — do not attempt to tie up a 
lot of loose wool and odds and ends to look like a fleece. Scabby 
wool is often very light in condition, and if carefully handled will 
often sell quite well on account of its lightness. Never dip, in 
the fall, with those strong dips which turn the color of the wool. 
In the spring it is not of so much consequence, as the sheep 
have just been sheared and the dip does not find any wool to 
damage." 

In order to make a success of the sheep business here, sheep- 
men have found that they must put up from twenty-five to 
forty tons of hay for eveiy thousand head, besides building 
sheds in which the animals may seek shelter during excessive 
cold. The hay can be put up at from two dollars to two dollars 
and a half per ton, and is an absolute necessity to successful 
sheep husbandry here. 

The average chp in this Territory is about six and one-half 
pounds per sheep, though isolated instances are reported where 
a clip of twenty-five pounds of wool has been sheared. The 
wools grown in this Territory are worth from twenty-two to 
twenty-eight cents per pound, and are counted among the very 
best of the mid-continent. 

Dakota. — The Indians held possession of this Territory until 
the Black Hills gold excitement turned public attention thither 
in 1875 ; population then came in rapidly. In 1880 there were 
eighty-five thousand, two hundred and forty-four sheep in 
Dakota, mostly grade Merinos from Minnesota and Iowa. Both 
classes of stock-men pronounce the country excellent for their 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 263 

purposes. Though cold, the constant dry winds sweep away 
the snow ; the foot-hills with timber afford shelter ; and grasses, 
principally the buffalo, furnish tolerably good feed. 

In 1880 there were sixty-three thousand, two hundred and six 
sheep shorn, yielding about five pounds of wool per fleece ; and 
there were one thousand, seven hundred and sixty-five slaugh- 
tered for mutton, having an average live weight of eighty-eight 
pounds. 

Alkali.— When sheep are very thirsty and heated they will 
injure or kill themselves by drinking alkali water. But when 
they have constant access to it they will sometimes take it with- 
out injury, and will not require to be salted ; though careful 
flock-masters consider this a slovenly practice. The following 
paragraph, clipped from the Pacific Rural Press, is full of sug- 
gestiveness for Western flock-masters : 

" Alfalfa will grow in alkali soil unless it is very strong ; but 
it seems that even the strongest will support Bermuda grass. 
Mr. J. A. Gary, of Tipton, has a spot of very strong white alkali 
ground by the side of his resei-voir. He planted alfalfa upon it 
repeatedly, but it would not make a start even. A few months 
ago he procured some Bermuda grass seed and tried that, with 
astonishing success. Although the fowls from the barn-yard 
scratch in it incessantly, it grows rapidly and will soon make a 
perfect mat all over what was before an unsightly alkali spot. 
Let others try this grass upon their alkali wastes." 

Items on Management.— Mr. W. B. Skipton, of Empire, Da- 
kota, furnishes me the following facts : In the spring and sum- 
mer, sheep feed principally on the buffalo and bunch grasses, 
but in the fall and winter they resort to blue- joint. The latter 
grows tall, and is not covered by snow. There is no rain during 
the fall and winter, and the buffalo and bunch grasses get so 
dry and harsh that the sheep do not relish them. There is a 
weed called the rosin-weed, which sheep are very fond of ; it is 
very scarce, and when flocks are put on a new range they will 
travel a great deal in search of it, but after they have been held 
there a few days, and have picked these weeds clean, they be- 
come contented. 

Good sheds are used in winter ; sometimes they are covered 
with hay, but generally with boards. Sheep are shedded only 
during the storms ; it matters not how cold it is, they are turned 
out to graze whenever it does not storm. If it storms all day, 
they receive some hay under shelter. The joint grass is cut for 



264 THE AMERICAN MERINO 

hay, because it grows heavier than other grasses, but any of 
them makes good hay. The hay is stacked, but not with much 
pamstaking, as there is not much rain at haying time. Very 
little bay is used, as the sheep are turned out to "rustle" for 
their living nearly the year round. 

There is a poisonous weed called the milkweed (a very small 
Meed, and not like that of the Eastern States^ so called, which 
is sure death to the sheep that eats it. There is no remedy 
used, for the sheep swells up and dies very quick. They do not 
eat it very often. 

There is no foot-rot in Dakota, but sheep are troubled with 
the " gumbo " getting between their hoofs, which causes them 
to go lame. The shepherds catch them, and remove it. There 
are no maggots in summer ; but sheep are troubled with horse- 
flies and bot-flies on the nose and legs, as they have not so much 
wool on these parts as have the Eastern sheep. They are rubbed 
on the noses and legs with kerosene and lard as a protection. 

Fenced sheep ranges wifl carry two sheep where the open 
range carries one. This proportion changes as the range im- 
proves and becomes greater in favor of the pasture system. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

SYSTEMS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY, Continued. 

Nebraska. — Among the foremost importers of Merinos into 
this State may be mentioned William Draper, H. H. Stoddard, 
J. M. Chadwick, Colonel J. H. Roe, R. F. James, Henry Good- 
year and William Stong. In Central and Western Nebraska, 
which is the stock region proper, the large, strong, prolific Me- 
rino ewes of California and Oregon (all ultimately traceable 
to California), have always been the favorites. A three-quarter 
California ewe, crossed with a full-blood Vermont or Ohio ram, 
gives the most desirable result — a strong, rangy animal, capable 
of taking care of itself on the wind-swept plains, with a dense 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 



265 




266 THE AMERICAN MERIN^O 

fleece of deep-grown, nicely crimped wool, adapted to resist the 
storms and shed the rain from its thick, oily exterior. Such a 
sheep, after a storm of snow and sleet which pierces the thin- 
wooled British sheep to the marrow, will get up and shake itself, 
throwing off the snow, and move quietly off to the range. Such 
a sheep will shear eight pounds of wool of good quality, grading 
as medium clothing, and will develop at maturity a carcass of 
one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty pounds (ten 
pounds less if a ewe), which, fattened one winter on the abund- 
ant corn of the Missouri Valley, or in Illinois or Indiana, will 
weigh one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and forty 
pounds, live weight, and bring, in the Chicago market, five, 
five and a half or six dollars per hundred. 

It is estimated, by a high authority in such matters, that a 
wether like that above described can be grown to the age of 
four years at a cost of one dollar and twenty-five cents ; saying 
nothing about the wool return, which will be at least one dollar 
and fifty cents a year, at the prices prevailing prior to 1883. It 
will then be worth three dollars and fifty cents — the carcass 
alone. 

The great demand for "feeders," to consume the superfluous 
corn of Iowa and the other rich p:airie States, tributary to 
Chicago and St. Louis, has created in Nebraska a strong pre- 
possession in favor of the mutton breeds, and the large-framed 
Merino of the Pacific. The Vermont Merino is sought after — 
to use the expressive phrase of a ranchman — simply to give 
''roofing" to the heavy-bodied Calif ornian. In default of the 
latter, the Nebraska flock-master will resort to the Downs or to 
the Cotswold. Still, he always wishes a considerable infusion 
of Merino blood from some source. 

A Merino ram from California, weighing one hundred and 
fifty to one hundred and seventy-five pounds, costs (1883) from 
one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five dollars ; but this 
is not considered as against the compensating gain of a pound 
per fleece in each of his progeny, and flf ty cents per hundred on 
the mutton. There are not lacking men in Central and West- 
em Nebraska, who fearlessly assert that the Merino is every way 
the best sheep for that section, being not only hardy, but yield- 
ing more wool and mutton than any cross-bred sheep. This is 
doubtless true, witii the quahfication that the flocks shall be the 
large range-flocks, and the Merino of the large, hardy, accli- 
mated California variety. 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTON. 267 

Appliances. — Reaching Nebraska we have approached near 
enough to the great agricultural systems of the populous East 
to frequently find on the ranch the convenient farm appliances 
to which the Eastern shei)herd is accustomed. Thus, on the 
great ranch of Colonel Roe, in Buffalo County, we find a barn 
capable of receiving two hundred and twenty-five tons of hay 
and fodder ; five good corrals ; a wind-mill, which distributes 
water to all the corrals ; sheds, with grain-troughs ; an ample 
corn-crib ; a ram pasture of ten acres, etc. 

Wind-Breaks. — In Western Nebraska, as in Wyoming and 
the adjacent regions, resort is frequently had to snow-fences or 
breaks for the protection of sheep. These are constructed nearly 
in the same way as ordinary board fence, except that there are 
no permanent posts set in the ground. Each panel is made in- 
dependent, with slats instead of the posts ; and these panels are 
set in strings, from one hundred to five hundred yards long, in- 
chned at a slight angle with the direction of the wind (which 
generally comes from the north-west), and supported by braces 
or brackets. These strings generally cm've a little, with the 
convex side toward the wind ; and, if the locality is one which 
is liable to very heavy snow-falls and strong winds, they are 
doubled, trebled, even increased to seven or eight in number, 
all running parallel and with a space of a rod or less between 
each two. Each successive string detains a part orf the snow, so 
that, unless the storm is unusually protracted, the sheep hover- 
ing in the lee are sufficiently protected. 

Belts and groves of trees are also found very useful for this 
purpose. White willow is preferred by most farmers ; some 
plant Cottonwood in regions where it will succeed. The white 
willow grows very rapidly and forms a dense screen. A snow- 
fence or a belt of this willow, advanced a Httle beyond a grove 
of the same, form an excellent protection ; very little snow will 
penetrate a grove thus protected. 

Dangers from the Elements. — ^There are two dangers, some- 
what peculiar to the Platte ranges of Central Nebraska, and 
especially noticeable in the Republican Valley — southwest — 
miring and drowning. There are hollows and stream-beds of 
tenacious or shifting soil, that become dangerous traps after the 
spring and early rains, particularly for young stock. When the 
floods break into the narrow valley ravines, numerous in those 
regions, there are sometimes heavy losses from drowning, the 
animals being caught by the flood of sudden storms. Along the 



268 THE AMERICA!^ MERINO 

Platte there are wide, treacberous qiiicksands which swallow 
up unwary animals. Other things greatly to be dreaded are the 
bhnding snow-storm known as a " blizzard," coming suddenly 
when the sheep are on the open range ; a cold rain that reaches 
the skin, and sometimes, when freezing follows, encases the 
sheep in a coat of icy mail ; and deep snow covering the ground 
for several days. In November, 1879, when Indian summ.or 
weather and good pasturage were giving promise of safety to 
flocks that were yet at a distance from home, suddenly, with- 
out any recognized warning, a furious snow-storm broke upon 
the plains in the night ; in the morning the thermometer had 
fallen nearly to zero, the wind was blowing a gale, and nothing 
could be seen a horse's length. The hastily aroused shepherds 
and their brave dogs could not control the sheep, although one 
of the latter killed fourteen sheep in his vigorous efforts to 
check their course. The storm lasted three days and nights. 
Sheep drifted forty and fifty miles from their ranges. Some 
were buried in snow-drifts ; some died from exposure and want 
of feed. As soon as the violence and persistency of the gale 
were realized, relief parties were started out. One herder was 
brought in frozen and helpless ; his dog had kept with the drift- 
ing sheep ; but he, evercome with cold and fatigue, had lain 
down to die. Another was discovered on his horse, but man, 
horse and dog formed a motionless group— the herder uncon- 
scious, the horse almost dead, the dog nearly frozen. The 
sheep, of which many were suffocated, were found hard by in 
a dry wash, where a snow-drift had covered them up. Man and 
dog had to be carried twenty miles to the nearest roof. He 
might have left his charge and gone in search of shelter while 
strength stiU remained to himself and horse, but he stood by 
his sheep to the last. It was said that the dog refused to eat or 
drink untU his master, restored to consciousness, recognized 
him ; then, when fed, he endeavored to return to the sheep. 

Feeding in Winter. — A hundred tons of hay, costing one 
dollar and twenty-five cents a ton, will winter one thousand 
sheep, and three bushels of grain per head is allowed to mutton- 
sheep. Stock sheep are not fed regularly, but if a stress of 
weather arises, they are brought within the corrals and receive 
two pounds of hay and one-fourth pound of shelled corn 
per head daily, scattered on the snow. Shelled corn is the 
universal feed for fattening sheep, while ewes in lamb receive 
crushed corn or oats. If the corrals are protected by snow- 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTOK. 269 

fences or belts of willow, as already described, the sheep will 
genprally do better thaa if housed. But sheds are needed for 
lambs, rams, " poor-house flocks," etc. 

Water in Winter.— When the shepherd sees his flock, of 
their own accord and wii^h a tremendous rush, run to their 
accustomed watering-place in summer, he understands that 
they need water ; but in winter he is very apt to neglect this 
matter. With snow evenly distributed over the range, sheep 
are apt to get all the water they want ; but when there is no 
snow they may suffer severely. Lambs, particularly, have to 
be carefully looked after ; they will sometimes become so stupid 
from cold that, even when driven to water, they do not appear 
to understand that it is water, but seem to think it is ice or 
snow. Many a lamb has been taken from a range where the 
snow supplied its wants daily, and, with one or two thousand 
others, been fed on hay and driven daily to a hole in the 
ice large enough for one hundred to drink from at once, and 
held there long enough for six or eight hundred to drink, then 
driven away (six or eight hundred others not having had any 
water), day after day without a drink, until it died, and the 
master did not know the reason. It requires the utmost pa- 
tience, gentleness and tact to hold a flock of half-frozen lambs 
to a hole in the ice, and keep them moving about, so that the 
large and strong ones may drink and fall back, and the others 
may be brought around within view of the water and secure 
what they want. 

The Details op Lambing, Etc., are about the same as here- 
tofore described for the adjacent regions. 

Diseases. — Scab is the only disease of any importance ; it is 
claimed by the residents that it would seldom occm- if not 
freshly brought in by trail sheep. This dry, elevated region 
does not develop foot-rot ; indeed, it is asserted that flocks 
suffering from it are cured by being driven hither. 

Flock-masters, in Nebraska, generally do not care to breed 
their sheep beyond three-fourths Merino. 

Wyoming.— Probably three-fourths of the sheep of this Ter- 
ritory are animals bred from original Mexican ewes, crossed 
with Merino and — to a less extent — Cotswold rams. From the 
" Government Report" I condense the following table ; 



2T0 



THE AMERICA if MEEIN^O 



ESTIMATED AVERAGE VALUE AND WEIGHT OF STOCK AND MUT- 
TON-SHEEP AND THE ESTIMATED /AVERAGE ANNUAL 
WOOL CLIP FOR 18«0. 





MUTTON-SHEEP. 


AVERAGE ANNUAL SHEAB. 


Kind of sheep. 


Average 

live 
weight. 


Average 
value as 
mutton. 


Rams. 


Ewes. 


Wethers. 


Lambs. 


Full Mexicans. 


Pounds. 
SO 

90 

115 
100 
125 


$2 20 

2 75 

3 25 

3 00 

4 25 


Pounds. 
3.5 


Pounds. 
2.5 

4 

3.75 

6 

5 


Pounds. 
3 

4.5 

4 
7 
6 


Pounds. 
2 


Half-breed _Mesic;iii 
Merinos — i. €., bred 
from Mexican ewes 
and crossed with 
Merino I'anis 


3 


Half-l)i-eed Mexican 
Cotswold, bred IVoni 
Mexican ewes and 
crossed with Cots- 
wold rams 

Higi)-grade Merinos. . 

Higli-grade Cotswold 


lb 

7 


2.75 
4.5 

4 



Laramie City is fast becoming a very important wool market, 
over two hundred thousand sheep already being grazed on the 
Laramie plains. Near the city, at a point which is termed 
Gloversville, Mr. S. H. Kennedy has erected dipping tanks and 
apparatus whereby shesp-growers are enabled to dip their flocks 
much cheaper than under the old arrangement of doing it at 
home. He has also, here, a large shearing pen with fifty stalls, 
with a capacity of several thousand sheep, a sacking-house, a 
large ware-house, boarding-house and engine, and pump-house. 
The sheep are driven to the works, shorn and dipped, and the 
wool is sacked ready for market. Scouring machines are talked 
of to prepare the wool for shipping direct to manufacturers. 
The wool product tributary to Laramie has reached nearly one 
million, five hundred thousand pounds per annum. 

All these associated efforts toward a consolidation, a better 
classification and an improvement of the condition of the wools 
of the Far West, previous to their shipping, ought to be fostered 
by the growers. It is this policy which has, among other things, 
given Australian wools their advantage over domestic fleece in 
the New England markets. In the case of these wools the 
manufacturer can, as he does in England, send an order to the 
broker for the exact number of pounds of the exact grade of 
wool he wishes ; and the professional stamp of the sorter, af- 
fixed " on honor " to a lot of wool, passes as unquestioned as a 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 271 

Bank of England note. It is this cleansing and thorough classi- 
fication of clips on a large scale which will enable the growers 
of the West to compensate themselves somewhat for the poorer 
grade of their wool, in competition with the small and scattered 
neighborhood clips of superior wool produced in the East. 

There are some objections to this plan which ought to be can- 
didly considered. One is, the strong opposition, amounting to a 
prejudice, of the manufacturers tow^ard scoured wool. Perhaps 
the West is indebted to the Californians as much as to any other 
section for the creation of this prejudice. Some years ago it 
was made known that if the Calfomia wools were sorted and 
scoured they could be shipped to the great mills of Cohoes and 
Lawrence and compete successfully with the Australian wools. 
With their accustomed energy the Californians entered into 
this scheme ; scouring mills were erected in San Francisco, and 
large shipments of "scoured" wool began to go East. But 
much of it, besides being originally defective, was so ill sorted, 
scoured and baled, that it gave a bad reputation to the whole 
enterprise. In the summer of 1885, unwashed wools sold more 
freely in Chicago than either scoured or washed wools. As the 
freight charges on dirt must ultimately be paid by the grower, 
the manufacturer is indifferent to a reform in this direction ; 
and it is easy for the grower to see how much it is to his inter- 
est to reduce his clip as nearly as possible to the condition of 
pure wool, sorted to its last analysis, before it starts on its long 
journey across the continent. 

Another objection is that every fleece must be sorted, so 
that each of the several qualities of fiber found in each fleece 
may be placed with fiber of lik« quality from other fleeces. 
This will make necessary the services of skilled sorters, and 
to such men high wages must be paid. But this sorting must 
be done at some time, and while wages would doubtless be 
higher in the West than in the East, the saving in charges for 
freight would probably pay a handsome profit over any differ- 
ence there might be in cost of sorting and scouring. 

Colorado. — This State has attained a prominent rank as a 
producer of sheep and wool. East of the Rocky Mountains and 
north of the Arkansas River, which is the principal stock re- 
gion, the number of sheep in 1870 was very small, and the feel- 
ing of stock-men against them was very bitter. In 1880 the 
sheep-men almost controlled this region by virtue of holdmg the 
lands with water on them. The sheep numbered one million, 



272 THE AMEEICAN MERIKO 

ninety-one thousand, four hundred and forty-three. Fourteen 
slaughtering establishments reported thirty-seven thousand, 
one hundred and sixty-six sheep butchered in 1879, having an 
average live weight of one hundred and four pounds. The wool 
clip averaged five to eight pounds per head. 

Here, as in neai-ly all the lands west of the hundredth merid- 
ian, the pasture is much depreciated in value below its condi- 
tion a quarter of a century ago, when it was overrun by millions 
of buffalo. In Colorado, perhaps more than in any other State, 
except California, irrigation and the cultivation of forage crops 
— chiefly alfalfa — have been prosecuted to supplement the fail- 
ing natural resources. "Alfalfa mutton" has a reputation 
almost as distinctive as the turnip-fed chops of Dorset. 

The seeds of the grasses and forage plants, it is true, are 
trampled in by stock, and especially by sheep, and in soils not 
too sandy tbey are thus defended from the drying and freezing 
they would otherwise suffer ; and the finely distributed sheep 
manure enriches the land ; but on the other hand, close herd- 
ing and cropping do undoubtedly tear out very considerable 
amounts of certain grasses by the roots. 

There are many dry regions on the great plains of the mid- 
continent, which do not absolutely forbid winter occupation, 
except in a few limited areas. The snow-drifts supply water 
under the warm breath of the stock,or are melted in holes in which 
the animals have trodden or wallowed. Stock can travel twice 
as far for water in winter as in summer, thus greatly increasing 
their available pasture area ; besides which, there are tracts 
which are supplied with water in winter but not in summer. 

I append the following paragraphs from the Government 
Report of 1884 : 

"We may consider the flock year to begin when lambing and 
shearing are done. The sheep go on summer range about July 
1st. Changes from summer to winter grazing are generally but 
not always made. The main idea is to keep the flocks where 
there is grass, and in winter to have them sheltered, artificially 
or naturally. 

" For summer management the stock is divided into flocks, 
here always called " bands" ; * the numbers vary according to 
kind from fifteen hundred to two thousand each, the ewes with 

" * The word "" band ' is used with very different meanings in different locali- 
ties in the West; it is used for a flock, a herd, a drove of animals, a sublrihe of 
Indians, etc. Among stock-meu it is used as the common name for either flock, 
herd or drove." 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON. 273 

Iambs together, the wethers and dry ewes together, each flock 
under a special shepherd (here usually called 'herder'), who 
is accompanied by a dog. The flock is put in an inclosure every 
night, for better protection. 

" The summer ranging continues until the last of November, 
when the sheep are moved to pasturage with sufiicient cured 
grass, shelters from storm, and stored feed for emergencies. 
Before winter sets in, weaker animals are separated from the 
flock and made into an invalid flock, with which, perhaps, the 
rams are run during the day. This flock receives special feed 
— hay or grain — as occasion requires. As a rule, feeding is not 
necessitated oftener than, perhaps, four winters in ten ; but a 
prudent administration will always provide feed other than 
pasture for lambs and weaklings, and for rams before and dur- 
ing service. 

" Dry stock and wethers will stand almost any severity of 
weather on pasture alone ; the use of hay on a sheep ranch is 
principally for tlie horses. About an ounce of corn per day to 
lambs, or two and a half ounces to other sheep, and twice the 
amount if oats are fed, is the usual ration for such as are fed. 
In 1880, corn delivered on the ranch in Central-eastern Colorado 
cost one dollar and sixty cents per hundred weight ; in 1879 it 
was worth one dollar and thirty cents ; in 1878, while the deep 
snow lay, it was had at ninety cents. * * * 

" The rams are turned in with the ewes from about the 10th 
of December to the 20th of January. They are, as a rule, put 
in with the ewe flock at night and taken out in the morning. 
***** 

*'The more experienced flock-masters discard sheds except 
for lambing. High, tight corrals, with outlying snow and wind- 
breaks, are preferred, as they afford sufficient shelter and pro- 
tection, are more cleanly, less liable to induce disease, and, in 
storms, the sheep do not overcrowd and smother one another. 

*' Inasmuch as severe storms and exceptional years are such 
an important element in Colorado sheep-grazing, the following 
facts pertaining to the experience of previous years in this re- 
gard may be of value : 

"In the winter of 1871-73 severe snow-storms caused great 
loss, and April 7th a terribly cold wind with fine snow (the 
* blizzard ' of the plains) was very destructive. Stock was then 
run without any artificial protection. The man who owned the 
largest flock in the State at that time, lost outright seventeen 
per cent, of his sheep. The years 1874 and 1875 are memorable 



274 THE AMERICA!^ MEm]S"0 

for extreme cold weather. The late storms during and just 
after lambing and shearing were the most disastrous. About 
the middle of June, 1876, there was a two days' storm of wind, 
snow, and hail. In the spring of 1877 again a like disaster came 
upon the flocks. During six weeks of December, 1877, and 
January, 1878, heavy snows remained upon the ground, in many 
places covering the pasturage entirely. One ranch, eighteen 
miles east of Colorado Springs, lost five hundred head out of 
thirty-seven hundred, while that almost unexampled snow lay 
on the ground. The losses consequent were said to have aver- 
aged twenty per cent, of the sheep. One man who then had 
six thousand sheep without pasturage, but who had provided 
hay the summer before and bought Kansas corn at eighty-five 
cents per hundred weight, carried his sheep through with but 
little loss." 

Sheep husbandry in Colorado, as in California, is subject to 
great vicissitudes, but, for the most part, from a different cause, 
to- wit : blizzards and deep snows. Fifty per cent, of flocks, for 
which no dry feed had been provided, have sometimes perished 
within a month. Yet the business has often been remarkably 
lucrative. 

Utah.— Two Merino rams are said to have been obtained from 
California-bound emigrant trains as early as 1858. In 1866, 
upon the establishment of a woolen mill in Utah, there was a 
demand for finer wool than had been grown before. Henry 
Bell traded to Brigham Young, for fat wethers, five thousand 
graded Merinos from California. Still, up to 1873, the quality 
of Utah wool remained poor, being little improved except by a 
few long-wool rams. In that year Daniel Davidson brought in 
four hundred high-grade Merino rams, an example followed by 
others ; and in a few years a large number of Merinos had been 
introduced from Vermont, Kentucky and California, of both 
the American and French varieties. 

In 1879 the commercial estimates placed the Utah clip at two 
million pounds, classing the product as medium to fine, an in- 
crease in six years of three hundred and forty-four per cent, in 
quantity with a great improvement in quality. A serious check 
was given to sheep husbandry by the severe winter of 1879-80, 
when, in the three Counties, Tooele, Millard and Juab, forty- 
three per cent, of the flocks perished. But the Mormon hie- 
rarchy has succeeded better than most of the Territorial authori- 
ties have done in reconciling or suppressing the conflicts 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 275 

between the cattle and sheep-owners, and the latter are steadily 
gaining on the former. 
From the Government Report I take these two items : 

"Sources of Loss Among Sheep.— The migration of sheep 
flocks encourages the prevalence of scab. This disease was said 
by aU flock-owners to exist almost universally throughout the 
Territory. Previous to 1876 no Mormon sheep-man practiced 
dipping his stock as an antidote to scab ; but in 1879 many flock- 
owners dipped their sheep. " Handling" sheep for the disease 
was still extensively adhered to, which consisted in catching 
such sheep as were seen to be affected and rubbing grease mixed 
with mercurial preparations on the diseased parts. Close atten- 
tion to the appearance of the disorder often kept it under con- 
trol, never, however, fairly eradicating it. When flocks were 
intrusted to lazy, unreliable herders, who failed to apply the 
ointment frequently, the progress of the disease during the long 
season of absence on the deserts was often rapid, and resulted 
in great mortality from weakening animals, thus causing them 
to succumb to storms, while the wool product of the surviving 
flock would be much reduced. The custom of driving thous- 
ands of sheep each spring to the neighborhood of the river 
Jordan for shearing, convenient to the Salt Lake market, has 
also tended to spread the contagion. Flock-masters assert that 
the bed-grounds of infected sheep are a sure medium for dis- 
seminating scab to a healthy flock which may later occupy the 
same spot. Each season between one and two handred thous- 
and sheep approach this common rendezvous in shearing time. 
Of other troubles occurring among sheep, blind staggers was 
stated to be most common and fatal, though no great mortality 
resulted from it. Losses by alkali taken in too large quantities 
with feed or drink while heated with traveling, and from bears, 
mountain lions,* coyotes or wildcats on the upland summer 
feeding-grounds were occasional throughout the Territory, and 
in some localities of more frequent recurrence. A flock-master 
of White River reported the loss of thirty-two valuable blooded 
rams in one night by a mountain lion that entered their pen. 
This same owner attributed a five per cent, loss each year to 
wild animals, an uncommon complaint, however, in most sec- 
tions of Utah. 

"Poisonous Vegetation.— Among the plants eaten by cat- 

*' * Panthers are usually known, west of the Rocky MouMtaius^ as lions, moun- 
tain lions, or California lions." 



276 THE AMERICAi^ MERIIsTO 

tie and sheep there are three which are commonly believed to 
be a source of slight annual loss among live-stock. The poison- 
ous parsnip, growing in wet meadow lands, and fatal to cattle 
when its root is eaten, is indigenous to many localities, particu- 
larly in improved and irrigated pastures to which milch cows 
may have access. Another plant often fatal to young lambs is 
the poisonous " Sego " found along water-courses on the valley 
slopes and bench lands ; the leaves of this plant are said to 
cause the diflQ.culty, as its bulb, though known to be injurious, 
is too firmly planted to be torn up by an animal while grazing. 
In Juab Valley a larkspur (monk's-hood ) was said by cattle- 
owners to be a frequent cause of death, in wet springs, among 
neat stock. Other localities of the western slope of the Wasatch 
Mountains were reported as nourishing this baneful growth, 
identical with the notorious ' poison weed ' of Colorado and 
Wyoming." 

Amount of Stock per Acre.— From the Government Re- 
port, above referred to, I compile the table here given, showing 
the average density of stock (cattle and sheep) occupation. One 
head of neat stock is taken as the unit of stock, and five sheep 
are considered an equivalent to one " cow" in relation to the 
consumption of pasture: 

Acres to the Head. No. of Sheep, 1880. 

Texas 24.72 3,651,633 

New Mexico 53.27 3,938,831 

Indian Territory 62.85 55,000 

Kansas 27.29 629,671 

Colorado 42.15 1,091,443 

Nebraska 40.42 247,453 

Wyoming 69.90 450,225 

Dakota... 73.72 85,244 

Montana 78.49 279,277 

California 35.63 5,727,349 

Arizona 122.24 466,524 

Nevada 145.65 230,695 

Utah 136.97 523,121 

Oregon 51.63 1,368,162 

Washington 91.68 388,883 

Idaho 135.00 117,326 

The reader will bear in mind that, not the total area of the 
States and Territories is given above, but the area of available 
pasturage. Also, tha?t if sheep alone were considered, the allow- 
ance of grazing would be onfy one-fifth of that in the table. 
For instance, Idaho would have one sheep to twenty-seven 
acres, etc. 



FOR WOOL X^T) MITTTOK. 277 

OHAPTEE XXVII. 
DISEASES OF THE MERINO.— " PAPERSKIK" 

As a motto applicable to the management of sheep, I should 
be disposed to paraphrase the old saying, " An ounce of pre- 
vention is worth a pound of cure " to read thus : " Pounds of 
prevention will reduce the cure to ounces." A diseased sheep, 
generally speaking, makes accusation against the master. I 
should be profoundly distrustful of the fidelity, industry, and 
special fitness of that flock-master, who professed a wide and 
deep acquaintance with the maladies of sheep, their treatment, 
and the remedies applicable to each. That ceaseless and tireless 
application to duty, that ever-watchful care-taking, which is 
the main requisite to success in sheep husbandry, and which 
will always be the principal dependence of the experienced 
shepherd, will leave him small leisure, and less inclination, to 
" doctor " his flock. The " doctoring " of a sheep is one of the 
most miserably unsatisfactory, uncertain and unprofitable 
operations in the whole scheme of management. 

One of the most successful shepherds that I ever knew 
adopted as his motto : " Love your sheep," To the reader who 
does me the honor to peruse these pages, I would say : Love a 
sound sheep ; leave no stone unturned to keep it sound ; but if, 
after you have done your best, it falls a prey to some of the, 
happily, very limited number of ailments to which the American 
Merino is liable, and the use of some simple remedies does not 
prove efficacious, it would be better — unless it is an exception- 
ally valuable animal — to dispatch it at once. At best the sheep 
is a frail animal ; it goes off quickly under the assault of most 
of its diseases ; and if the case is a lingering one, with any vis- 
ceral disease, it is almost certain to result fatally. 

Yet the sheep is one of the healthiest of animals if thoroughly 
well cared for. Good feeding and good care, are of transcend- 
ent importance ; and I would have the barn so large, the at- 
mosphere so pure, the hay so sweet and green, and the corn so 
sound, that there never would be room for a bottle of medicine 
in it. 

General Remarks on Disease. — The respiratory system of 
the Merino is proportionately smaller and feebler than that of 
the steer ; it loves and requires, above all other domestic ani- 



278 THE AMERICAIT MERIiq^O 

mals, the pure air of high and dry lands for the maintenance of 
health. It is less tolerant of the vitiated atmosphere and noxi- 
ous stenches of the stable. The large, round nostrils of the 
Cotswold, while offering a more ready asylum for the gad-fly 
in summer, on the other hand conduce to that fullness and ro- 
tundity of the lungs, which materially contribute to protect it 
from the diseases incident to the respiratory system. This, to- 
gether with its complicated and retarding alimentary apparatus, 
with its four stomachs and many yards of entrails, render the 
digestive processes weak and easily disturbed. 

The sheep is naturally a gormandizer ; it consumes an amount 
of food disproportionately large for its size, and extracts a 
relatively small percentage of nutriment from it ; hence, the 
richness of its manure. Hence, also, like all gormandizers 
with an overloaded stomach, it needs air, exercise, freedom, in 
order lo work off this gorge without detriment. A Merino 
closely confined and fed sufficiently, leads a cold-blooded life ; 
its ears and extremities are cold ; frequently it has not enough 
animal heat to Hquify the yolk and expel it to the extremities 
of the fibers. Hence, the latter become clotted and pasty with 
yolk of a greenish tinge or nankeen-colored. 

The sluggishness of the sheep's vital processes renders it a 
small and infrequent consumer of water ; and by the same sign 
it ought to have all it will drink, and be encouraged, by frequent 
exercise, to drink more. There are more flock-masters who err 
in regard to water and exercise than in feeding ; the flocks are 
oftener stinted in the former than the latter. 

In proportion to its size, the sheep has also a smaller brain 
and nervous system than any other domesticated animal. On 
this account it is not capable of very severe or long continued , 
muscular exertion, and is not very subject to violent inflamma- 
tory diseases ; but, on the other hand, it has little power to resist 
disease, or to recover from it after the force of that is broken. 

For these reasons, the bleeding and purging recommended by 
English veterinarians for their high-fed, full-blooded sheep, are 
seldom called for with the feebler and more sluggish Merino. 
On the other hand, its overloaded stomach often requh'es pur- 
gatives ; but these, on account of the weak nervous and mus- 
cular system, should always be accompanied with tonics, such 
as ginger, gentian, oil of peppermint, etc. In other words, 
while the stomach needs depletion, the general system needs at 
the same time protection against the drastic effects of the pur- 
gatives and it needs tonlDg-up as a curative agency. 



FOR WOOL AT^D MUTTON^. 279 

Purgatives. — The best purgatives for nearly all occasions are 
Eposm salts and raw linseed oil. Whatever may be the method 
employed with oth'er classes of medicine, purgatives should al- 
ways be given m a liquid form, to secure more prompt and 
thorough action ; as, generally (though not always), a medicine 
given with the feed has to go through the slow process of re- 
gurgitation and remastication before it can pass through the 
four stomachs and exert any effect. A long-necked wine bottle, 
or a cow's horn prepared and bottomed for the purpose, is the 
best implement for drenching. It is best to let the sheep stand 
naturally, with its head held between the shepherd's legs ; and 
the tongue should not be drawn out, but the bottle may be 
thrust well down between the back teeth, thus keeping the 
mouth open as long as desired. 

Bleeding. — The best place for bleeding a sheep is in the facial 
vein below the eye, or on the inside of the forearm. If it is 
desirable to draw a considerable quantity of blood, it should be 
taken from the jugular vein in the neck ; let a little wool be 
snipped off, the finger pressed on the vein below the cut, and 
an incision made lengthwise, not crosswise. Half a pint to 
half a teacupful are the Hmits within which the amount of 
blood abstracted should range. 

Parasitic Diseases. — Not only do the malodorous secretions 
and exhalations of the greasy, gormandizing Merino attract 
many parasites {epizoa) to the exterior of its body in summer 
but the closeness with which it crops herbage to the ground, 
and its omnivorous habits, expose it to the assaults of many in- 
ternal parasites (entozoa). Cobbold states, in his valuable work, 
*' The Internal Parasites of our Domesticated Animals," that 
the sheep is infested at times by at least eight nematode (round 
or thread-like), parasites, of which seven are strongles (Stron- 
gyli), \^ hile the eighth is the common whip-worm (Tricocepha- 
lus afflnis), of the ruminants. Besides these, the American 
Merino is subject (though less than the sheep of England) to 
the ravages of one of the trematode (or flat) worms, commonly 
called a fluke {Fasciola hepatica of Linn^us, Distoma hepaticum 
of Rudolphi), and less frequently — ^perhaps not at all fatally — 
of two others (Distoma lanceolatum, and Amphistoma conicum). 
Then, too, the sheep is the unfortunate host or bearer of one of 
the tcenioid (or jointed) worms, popularly called tape-worms 
{Taenia expansa) ; of the brain hydatid (Coenurus cerebralis), 
which causes the blind staggers ; of the " bat" or larva of the 



280 THE AMERICAI^ MERINO 

gad-fly (Oestrus ovis), in the frontal or nasal sinuses ; of an 
arachnidan parasite {Pentastoma tcenioides), also a tenant of 
the nasal cavities ; and, also, of a species of Ascaris, although 
there is little positively known concerning the last named. 
Then there is an entozoon, termed by Dr. Cobbold the " mutton 
measle " (Cysticercas ovis), which is very rarely found in the 
flesh of the sheep in England, but has been discovered in 
African mutton ; and three species of the Echinococcus, chief 
of which is the E. veterinorum, encysted in the lungs and liver. 
Lastly, there is the so-caUed lumbriz (presumably Spanish, from 
the Latin root lumbricus, and which I find spelled in six differ- 
ent ways), probably a species of Strongyliis ; and the "screw- 
worm " of the same State, a product of an oviparous species of 
the Oestrus, a worm more destructive than the common sheep 
maggot. 

The Lung Parasites.— I shall treat of these first, because 
they are of preeminent importance. Without doubt, they 
cause, in all the region east of the Mississippi, not only greater 
annual loss of sheep than any other one disease, but a greater 
loss than all others combined. Probably four-fifths of all the 
sheep destroyed by disease in the region mentioned are lambs 
under the age of one year, carried off by what may well be 
teiTQed ovine consumption, the insidious ravages of the lung 
parasite variously known as Strongyliis filaria, Strongyliis 
bronchialis, Filaria bronchialis, etc. When mature, the male 
worms are about two inches in length, needle-shaped, yellowish, 
and smaller than the females, which are three or fom' inches 
long, and white. They are found In the trachea, hronchi, and 
universally diffused throughout the lungs. In the spring, the 
females are found full of thin-shelled ova or eggs, and free em- 
bryos or worms already hatched, though the worms yet in the 
eggs appear sufficiently developed to be able to maintain an in- 
dependent existence. 

How the germs of the strongyliis reach the lungs is not clearly 
understood. It would appear that there are two stages of tho 
disease induced by them ; the first stage being while the germs 
are still encysted in the lung tissues, producing what is mis- 
takenly called tuberculosis, from the number of smaU, hard 
nodules arising from the irritation of the foreign bodies in the 
lungs and the consequent exudations around them, together 
with the cretification of the parasitic deposit itself. Each 
nodule is small, often not exceeding the size of a pin's head, 
and if it is squeezed, there is felt between the fingers the hard 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 281 

body referred to, which seems to be designed for the protection 
of the egg or eggs within. In due time the latter hatch ; the 
worm is coiled upon itself in its narrow prison, within which it 
begins to move about until it effects its escape into the open 
passage of the lungs. 

Now supervenes the secondary stage of the disease, that of 
the mature worms, which have by this time taken up their 
abode in the bronchi and trachea, where they often become 
knotted into loose masses or balls invested with mucus. This 
stage of the disease, unless relief is afforded, speedily has a 
fatal termination. 

As already said, we have nothing but conjecture to offer as to 
the manner in which these parasites gain access to the lung 
cavities. Dr. Crisp's view is, that the parasites are first ingested 
by the animal as it feeds upon the grass, where they are lurk- 
ing ; then, after being warmed and nourished for a short time 
in the stomach, they are carried to the mouth again with the 
regurgitating cud, and, by some hook or crook (for here his 
theory is defective) manage to descend the trachea. Dr. G. 
Stuart mentions that some French writers hold that the living 
parasites, which are swallowed by the sheep with mouthfuls of 
grass, find their way at once into the windpipe and lungs, with- 
out the intermediate journey to the stomach, then back to the 
mouth, etc. Dr. Cobbold wisely refrains from offering any 
speculations on the subject. He confines himself to the simple 
statement of that which is known concerning them— that the 
worms, when mature, take up their residence in the bronchi, 
chiefly in those of a medium size, where they produce either a 
simple catarrh or an inflammation which diffuses itself over a 
great part of the lungs, ultimately causing death. 

Dr. Stuart states that these parasites are so tenacious of life 
that even after being dried for a month they show signs of life 
when moistened ; and that they survive an immersion in spirits 
of wine. 

After the above description of this most pernicious and tena- 
cious pest with which the Merino lamb has to contend for life, 
it will afford the shepherd some slight relief to learn the par- 
tially compensating fact that the disease created by it is not 
hereditary, contagious or infectious. Lambs born of infested 
parents always have healthy lungs. They never contract the 
disease except by swallowing the parasite with grass or other 
herbage on which, after being coughed up by other sheep, it has 
taken refuge. 



282 THE AMERICAN MERINO 

Symptoms— ''Paperskin."— Some writers contend that the 
parasite, having been swallowed, bores through the tissues from 
the stomach to the lungs ; and cite as a proof of this the fact 
that it is only lambs which are attacked, the tissues of older 
sheep being too tough to be bored through ! It is only during 
the first fifteen or eighteen months of the sheep's existence that 
it is exposed, to any important extent, to the invasions of these 
parasites. After the teg has passed the month of May the second 
time in its life, all danger, both from the tenioid and the 
nematode parasites is practically over. 

The symptoms of the disease are, in general, an anaemic con- 
dition or bloodlessness, indicated in part by a waxy pallor of 
the skin, which, in popular usage, by a substitution of effect 
for cause, furnishes a common designation of the ailment — 
" paperskin." The blood becomes resolved more or less into its 
elements, in some cases the fibrin being apparently consumed 
by the parasites, while the serum collects In a watery excres- 
cence under the chin. In this case the disease has advanced to 
an incurable stage ; I never knew an animal in this condition 
to recover. There is a very perceptible pallor about the nostrils, 
languor in the motions, generally much thirst, hardly any ema- 
ciation noticeable, but an indisposition to travel which becomes 
plainly manifest when the flock is driven a few moments. The 
affected animals, as if aware of their inability to keep up, retire 
to one side, and desire to be left alone. Frequently there is a 
deep, exhausting, but almost noiseless cough. In an advanced 
stage of the disease, the wool parts readily from the skin, the 
fibers having become so attenuated as to have no strength to 
speak of. 

Prevention and Treatment. — Concerning the source or 
origin of these parasites, the most important practical fact to 
be borne in mind is that they are most numerous, or at least 
are found in sheep in the greatest numbers, during wet seasons, 
or among flocks which pasture most on lowlands subject to 
fogs, and more or less overgrown with aquatic (not salt) vegeta- 
tion. Hence, the necessity, as a prophylactic measure, of keep- 
ing young sheep off from such pastures as much as possible, 
and of not allowing them to leave the stable in the morning un- 
til the dew is dried off. These are preventive measures which 
would suggest themselves to everybody. Others will be men- 
tioned a little further along. 

The proper treatment for sheep suffering from this affection 
should have regard to two points : First, to support the strength 



FOR WOOL a:^b muttok. 283 

of the sheep ; second, to expel the parasites. To sustain the 
strength and vitality of a sheep already aiffected, though it is 
very important, is exceedingly difficult, because the appetite is 
feeble and capricious. The lamb can seldom be induced to eat 
enough, even of the most nutritious feed, to make any consid- 
erable impression on it in the way of betterment ; and the dan- 
ger in giving it, by force, stimulating gruels, etc., is that, owing 
to its bloodless condition, the process of digestion will be so illy 
performed that the feed will do it more harm than good by 
causing scours. High feeding is of transcendent importance as 
a preventive measure ; but when the lamb has reached such a 
pass that vermifuges have to be employed, it is necessary to 
proceed with great caution in giving rich feed. 

To expel the worms, some shepherds resort to fumigation. 
The lamb is made to inhale the fumes of burning sulphur, 
tobacco or chlorine gas in a tight room, as long as the operator 
himself can stand it in the lower strata of the atmosphere. 

After trying tar, copperas, soot, sulphur and other anthel- 
mintics, I find that the best is a mixture of turpentine and 
linseed oil in equal portions. The operator must be very care- 
ful in administering it, or he will strangle the lamb, already 
enfeebled by the treacherous disease. After much experi- 
menting, I find that the safest method is to let the lamb 
stand naturally on the ground, between the operator's legs. 
With the thumb and fingers of the left hand inserted in the 
mouth, hold the jaws apart, and the head a little lifted up — a, 
very little, only just enough to cause the Kquid to run down 
the throat. If the head is held back too much, the animal is 
very apt to be strangled. Have about a tablespoonful of the 
mixture in a longish-necked vial, stout enough not to be easily 
crushed between the teeth, and pour about half of the amount 
at once, right down beside the tongue. Do not attempt to hold 
the tongue. If the animal chokes and coughs, let it have its 
head until it recovers ; then complete the dose. This ought to 
be administered every day, for two or three weeks, on a stomach 
emptied by a twelve hours' fast. This small quantity of the 
spirits of turpentine is better than a large one, as a large dose 
will be eliminated from the system through the bowels and kid- 
neys, while a small one will be removed through the lungs ; 
and it is the vapor of it passing along the trachea and air-pas- 
sages which are offensive to the worms. 

But, unless the operator is much more careful than most 
farmers are, there is a good deal of danger in this method of 



284 THE AMERICAK MEEI]S"0 

treatment. It is an extremely easy matter to kill a lamb with 
a teaspoonful of turpentine, as I have found out more than 
once. And, at the best, it is a miserably unsatisfactory and 
disheartening labor to medicate a flock of paperskin lambs. 
Prevention is far better. And, indeed — unless it may be an ex- 
ceptionally bad, wet year — it argues ill for the watchfulness 
and diUgence of the flock-master to have paperskin get any con- 
siderable foothold among his lambs. True, it is a most treach- 
erous and insidious disease — equally so with its congener, con- 
sumption, in the human family — and a flock of lambs may seem 
to be healthy and growing, looking plump, and continuing to 
eat about as usual, when, if one of them is chased smartly five 
hundred yards, it will fall all in a heap, and probably expire in 
ten minutes. And it is astonishing how much indifference 
farmers manifest concerning it — principally, I believe, because 
it is not a demonstrative disease — makes its inroads silently, 
stealthily, and carries off the youngest, and therefore least val- 
uable members of the flock. A single case of grub in the head 
of a mature sheep, with its violent capers, its agony, its tragic 
death, will cause more excitement and remark on the farm than 
the loss of a dozen once promising lambs by this obscure disease. 

The preventive measure of transcendent importance is high 
feeding. A thoroughly vigorous, well nourished lamb seldom 
falls a prey to these parasites. If the farmer has found by pre- 
vious disastrous experience that the soil of his farm predisposes 
sheep to this pest (some soils, notably limestone, seem to escape 
it), he ought to adopt some plan of feeding his lambs all sum- 
mer, or at least from the time when wet weather sets in. Better 
get them accustomed to wheat bran ; then wean them a month, 
earlier than usual, if necessary, in order that they may be fed 
liberally. If the flock is large, the smaller and weaker ones 
ought to be put in a flock by themselves, and receive all the 
wheat bran they wiU eat up clean, twice a day. If a little oil- 
cake meal is sprinkled on it in the troughs, better still. It goes 
without saying, that they ought to be housed from drenching 
rains, kept on highland pastures, limestone if possible, and not 
be allowed to go afield in the morning until the dew is well off 
the grass. 

Use of Copperas.— The summer and fall of 1882 will long 
be remembered by the flock-masters of Southern Ohio on ac- 
count of the great mortality among lambs from paperskin. I 
addressed a large number of inquiries, orally and by letter, to 
the best shepherds of my acquaintance, and received many re- 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOIf. 285 

plies, from which I will condense the following general state- 
ment : 

The great majority of them depended for protection on finely 
powdered copperas, kept in the salt, in varying proportions, 
from one- twenty-fifth up to one-fourth, according to the wet- 
ness of the season, the dampness of the ground and the liability 
of the flocks to the disease consequent on these conditions. 
They aimed to keep it constantly in the salt for the first eighteen 
months of the sheep's life, or at least to keep them on salt and 
copperas two or three weeks, alternating with an equal period 
on clear salt, for the above named length of time. 

I am specially indebted for facts to Messrs. C. C. Smith, G. 
B. Qainn, W. F. Quinn, R. and A. T. Breckenridge, W. R. 
Stacy, J. Chad wick, W. M. Buchanan, L. W. Skipton, L. Leget, 
T. Flemmg, C. S. Pugh. 

My own experience with copperas has been highly favorable, 
since I liave learned to keep it constantly before the lambs until 
they have passed their second summer. 

Since the above date, Messrs. G. B. and Wm. F. Quinn have 
decided against the constant use of copperas, on the ground 
that it not only blackens and destroys the teeth, but creates a 
depraved appetite in the sheep which demands its continuance 
through life. The last named gentleman has abandoned the 
use of it, except as a temporary tonic and purgative. He gives 
it finely powdered, a pinch as large as a grain of corn, in a piece 
of apple ; two or three doses like this ; one on every other day. 
He claims that it will produce, in this manner, whatever good 
effects it is capable of producing. 

Mr. W. B. Shaw, of Beverly, and Mr. E. J. Hiatt, of Chester 
Hill, use and recommend pumpkin seeds for paperskin. If 
pumpkins are ripe, they are split in halves and laid, flesh side 
up, in a feed-trough divided into compartments, each large 
enough to receive a pumpkin. If they are not ripe, a decoction 
is made by boiling the seeds. For tape-worm or other stomach 
or intestinal parasites, pumpkin seeds are undoubtedly effica- 
cious ; but it may be doubted if they would avail against the 
strongylus. 

Dr. Cobbold attaches great importance to the inhalation of 
chlorine gas, in case the animal has not advanced so far in the 
disease as to be much weakened. 

High feeding and elevated, dry pasture are of the first im- 
portance. 



286 THE AMEKICAK MEEIKO 

In conclusion, I will add that it is very important to break 
up the disease by expelling the parasites before winter sets in. 
The vitality and condition of the lamb ought to be fully re- 
stored before it is put on a regimen of dry feed, as then, even if 
the worms should be expelled, it is more difficult to build up 
the lamb than it would be on green feed. A paperskin lamb 
will frequently, if only slightly infested, linger through the 
winter in a feeble condition, and then perish in less than two 
weeks after it is turned to grass. The juices of the green grass, 
while weakening to the lamb, seem to impart to the lurking par- 
asites within it new and greater vitality ; a fresh installment of 
them are hatched out. 

As a further preventive measure, no manure from a shed 
occupied by infested sheep should be scattered on a pasture oc- 
cupied by lambs ; nor should lambs be allowed to graze in a 
field lately containing others that were known to be the bearers 
of the strongylus. 

"Buck-Fly Grub."— A correspondent of The Shepherd's Na- 
tional Journal, in Wayne County, Iowa, describes a ' ' Buck- fly 
grub," which caused the loss of four valuable sheep of his flock. 
They had some of the symptoms of lung fever, such as quick 
breathing, frothing at the nostrils and grinding of the teeth. 
All had the same symptoms, and died within twelve hours. An 
examination revealed the lungs sound, but the windpipe was 
nearly full of a yellowish fluid and froth, in which were swim- 
ming eight or ten grubs, from one-third to two-thirds of an inch 
in length, and very much resenibling the grub or larva of the 
CEstrus avis. This was in the winter. An old hunter stated 
that he had found these grubs in the wind-pipe of the deer in 
winter, but never in the summer. 

The same treatment would be indicated as for the strongylus 
or lung- worm. 



FOR WOOL AIS'D MUTTOK. 



287 



CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
PAEASITIC DISEASES, Continued. 



LiVER-EOT. — The liver-rofc, fluke, or "bane" has been known 
among sheep, and its ravages dreaded, from early times. There 
have been many theories as to the nature of the fatal disease ; 
but of late years it has been shown that it is due to a parasitic 
animal which inhabits the bile ducts of the sheep's liver. For 
several years researches into the natural history of the pest 
have been carried on by Professor A. P. Thomas on behalf of 
the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England, and the completed 
investigations are given in part I. of the Journal of the Society 
for the year 1883. From this I condense the more important 
facts discovered and reproduce most of the engravings. 

The fluke, figure 29, is a sucking worm somewhat resembling 
the common leech, of a flat, oval shape, pale brown or flesh- 
colored, and an inch to an inch and a third 
in length. Near the head is a sucker, y, by 
means of which the fluke attaches itself to 
the surface of the infested part. The mature 
fluke produces a large number of eggs, which 
are one-two-hundredtlis of an inch m length. 
In one case observed, seven million eggs were 
obtained from the gall-bladder of a single 
diseased sheep. Figure 30 shows the fluke's 
Q^g, much magnified, as it comes from the 
sheep's liver. It is an oval body, with a 
transparent shell, which allows the rounded 
masses of the contents to be seen. The eggs 
are carried with the bile into the intestine, 
and at length are voided with the droppings 
of the animal. If they fall upon wet ground, 
or are washed by rains into pools or streams, 
other changes occur. With the temperature 
at seventy-five to eighty degrees, an embryo 
forms in about two weeks. Figure 31 shows 
an egg with the embryo fully formed, 
and figure 32 represents the same when hatched, both highly 
magnified. The broader end is directed forward in swimming, 
and in its center is a peg-like projection which is used as a 
boring tool. When the embryo meets with any object, it feels 




Fig. 29. 

ADULT FLUKE. 



288 



THE AMERICAN MERIKO 



about, and if not satisfied, darts off ; but if the surface met is 
that of a certain kind of snail — LimncEus truncatulus (figure 
33), it begins at once to bore into it. The young fluke spins 
around on itself like the handle of a cork-screw, by means of 
the many hair-like paddles covering its surface. The objective 
point is the snail's lung, in which the embryo fluke soon devel- 
ops farther at the expense of the juices of the host. The form 
of the body of the embryo soon changes to an oval shape, shown 
in figure 39. This is distinguished as tLe aist generation in the 
snail, and is termed the Sporocyst, which means a bag of germs. 





I. 30.— EGG OF Fig. 31.— EGG WITH Tig". 
FLUKE. EMBKTO. EMBETO. 



Fig. 33.— LIMN^TJS 
TEUNCATULUS. 



These sporocysts grow rapidly, and develop offspring which are 
the second generation, and are called Redia. Figure 37 shows 
a magnified mature sporocyst, containing a number of redia. 
The largest one at the lower end is well developed, and will 
soon force its way through the walls of the parent — the wound 
healing up and the remaining germs continuing to grow. The 
redia are more active than the sporocysts and migrate from the 
lung to other organs of the snail. A full grown redia is shown 
in figure 36 ; it has a mouth and an intestine, and produces the 
third generation. The offspring of the redia are tad-pole shaped, . 
and called the Cercarice. It is this third generation of the snail 
parasite that is destined to enter the sheep and produce the 
liver fluke. The cercarise, one of which is shown in figure 34, 
leave the snails, swim around for a time, and then become 
attached to and encysted upon grass stalks. These cysts remain 
dormant until picked up and swallowed by sheep feeding on 
the grass. The number of cercariae descended from a single 
fluke egg is not less than two hundred, and under the most 
favorable conditions, over a thousand. A single live fluke may, 
through the medium of the alternation of generations above 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON. 



289 



described, give rise to more than a hundred million descendants 
within a single season. 

It is six weeks from the swallowing of the tadpole-like 
animal before the fluke becomes adult, and begins to produce 
eggs in the liver of the diseased sheep. It is seen that the fluke 
alternates between a particular snail and the sheep. The latter 
voids the eggs, and the developed embryos enter the snails, 
which, in turn, harbor them through, three distinct forms, the 
last attaching itself to herbage, conveys the infection to the 
sheep. 

Now that the life-history of the parasite is known, the condi- 
tions for its existence may be understood. Professor Thomas' 





Fig. 34. 

CERCARIA. 



Fig. 35. 
TOUNG REDIA. 



Fig. 36. 
MATURE REDIA. 



summary is condensed as follows : For the production of liver- 
rot in sheep, there must be — 1. Fluke eggs on the ground. 2. 
Wet ground or water during warm weather. 3. The snail, 
Limncevs truncatulus. 4. Sheep to feed on the ground infested 
by the fluke. 

The eggs may be introduced in manure, in earth adhering to 
the feet of animals, or by running water, especially floods. 
Eabbits and hares are often infested with liver fluke, and may 
be a means of introducing it. The production of eggs is pre- 
vented by killing all sheep suffering from the disease. There is 



290 



THE AMERICAN MEEINO 



no cure for the fluke, as it inhabits an organ not easily reached 

by medicines. 

Symptoms of Rot.- In the earlier stages of this terrible mal- 
ady there is no way of discovering whether the parasite is 
present in the liver or not, unless one of them happens to be 
voided in the excrement. Indeed, in the beginning of its occu- 
pancy, it has a positively stimulating effect on the liver ; it irri- 
tates and goads it into an increased activity, which causes the 
animal to improve in condition for a time. The shepherd often 
mistakes this improvement for a genuine gain in health and 
vigor. 

Before death ensues, the animal falls into a deplorable condi- 
tion. The belly becomes protuberant and pendulous, the spine 





Fig. 37. 

MATURE SPOBOCTST. 



Fig. 38. 

SPOKOCYST DIVIDING. 



Fig. 89. 
SPOEOOYST. 



is reduced to a condition which may be well termed "razor- 
back," the gait is feeble and tottering, the skin becomes dry and 
flaky and the wool begins to fall off, the subcutaneous tissues, 
especially under the chin, become swollen. Indeed, it is this 
dropsical excrescence under the lower jaw which has always, in 
my experience, constituted the one pathognomonic symptom 
of liver-rot as distinguished from the anaemia produced by the 
Strongylus. There is a rapidly increasing emaciation, frequently 
accompanied by scouring. 

A post-mortem examination reveals a liver much swollen and 
discolored, and it is so rotten that the flnger can.be thrust into 
it anywhere, tearing it into pieces. The blood is nearly devoid 
of its coloring matter^ and is reduced in volume ; water abounds 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON. 291 

everywhere throughout the system, the flesh is pale and flabby, 
the skin waxen- white. If it is a ewe, the udder will become as 
white as paper. The heart is frequently surrounded by clear- 
looking water. 

Prevention. — As with all parasitic disorders, prevention is 
highly important. Sulphur, eaten with the feed and passing 
thence into the blood, is distasteful to all parasites, internal and 
external. But common salt seems to be almost as valuable a 
preventive against the fluke as copperas is against the Strongy- 
lus. It is a fact which has been observed for more than a cen- 
tury, that sheep grazing on salt-marshes are exempt from the 
rot. Along the coast of the South Atlantic and Gulf States, 
otherwise so pestilen tial and malarious to men and animals, 
sheep running on the salt grasses are observed to be healthy. 

If sheep are on a pasture of such a nature that the farmer is 
warranted in expecting rot, he ought to examine them carefully 
once a week. If any are found feverish, with the distended 
and rigidly rounded nostrils, indicative of hard breathing, eye- 
lids and the sclerotic of the eyeballs yellow, breath hot to the 
hand, let him at once remove the flock to high pastures, give 
dry feed, and give each affected sheep two ounces of Epsom 
salts (one ounce to a lamb), and repeat, if necessary to physic 
the animal. Follow this with two grains of calomel mixed with 
one grain of opium daily, until the fever is wholly subdued. 
Plenty of common salt should be supplied all the while, and as 
soon as the use of the calomel is stopped, the salt should be 
given as a medicine — two ounces a day, with a dram each of 
ginger and ground gentian, mixed. This is the substance of 
Mr. Youatt's prescription, with the bleeding omitted, which is 
almost never advisable for an American Merino. 

Tape- Worms in Sheep.— During the prevalence of the ento- 
zoic plague among the sheep of Southern Ohio in 1882, I 
received letters from a number of shepherds, in which occurred 
such expressions as these : "In one was a tape-worm five feet 
Jong, besides thirteen grubs in the head ; " "I found in the in- 
testines a flat worm about six feet long, jointed about as if you 
took a wheat straw, flattened it down, and marked it off with 
the thumb-nail every half inch," etc. 

A sheep-owner in Hays County, Texas, states that during the 
summer of 1880, which was very wet, he lost forty-five per 
cent, of spring lambs from a cause not ascertained at the time, 
but which was attributed to wet. He writes, July, 1881, "that 
the summer has thus far been very dry," and that his lambs are 



292 THE AMERICAN MERIKO 

dying a month earlier than in 1880. Upon examination he 
finds ' ' in the small entrail, which is one hundred feet long, and 
runs from the bowels to the anus, one or more worms of great 
length, white, very soft, one-quarter of an inch wide and sus- 
ceptible of parting at every eighth of an inch. I know no 
remedy, and the disease is very fatal. It is not identical with 
lombrez." 

In the American Sheep-Breeder, May, 1885, M. C. Jackson, of 
Denver, Colorado, stated that he was losing about one hundred 
lambs a month from tape-worm. " Fat lambs go as quick as the 
poor ones. The first day they become stupid, second and third 
days they scour, and usually on the fourth day, die." He says 
a neighbor began the winter with fourteen hundred strong, 
healthy lambs, and had only three hundred and seventy left ; 
all the rest died of tape- worm ! 

In Missouri it first appeared in 1875, when a correspondent of 
the National Live Stock Journal reported a falling off in his 
lambs, followed by mild diarrhoea. In less than two months 
from the time the disease made its first appearance, he lost 
half his fiock, and the remainder were ailing. On examina- 
tion after death the small intestines were found to be packed 
full of tape-worms. 

In the spring of 1884 many flock-masters of Western New 
York and Pennsylvania reported to Mr. H. Stewart, the author 
of that excellent treatise, "The Shepherd's Manual," that there 
was a very prevalent and mysterious disease in their flocks, 
which some of them attributed to barley straw on which the 
sheep had been fed. As Mr. Stewart remarks, all bearded straw 
will sometimes produce disorder among ruminants, from the 
gathering of the sharp spines in the cellular coats of the paunch, 
yet this very seldom becomes a serious matter, and cannot pos- 
sibly become a prevalent disease. 

Cobbold states that only one species of cestode is known to be 
present in sheep in an adult condition ; this is the Tcenia ex- 
pansa, or "long tape- worm." But there are two other tape- 
worms which occur in sheep in the larval or immature form 
{Tcenia marginata and Tcenia echinocoecus). From this, it 
would appear that the worms seen by my correspondents must 
have been of still another species ; for Cobbold states that the 
"long tape-worm" is thirty or forty feet long, and has been 
known to reach the enormous length of one hundred feet ! 

Symptoms and Cure. — Professor Stewart says, in an article 
m the Country Gentleman, " It is obvious that there is no cure 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOI^. 293 

by medicine, for no medicine could reach the creatures encysted 
in a diseased sheep." This is true only as it applies to those 
tape-worms which exist in the sheep in a larval stage, for the 
mature parasites, many yards in length, which have often been 
found in the entrails, are, to a large extent, susceptible to the 
action of what are denominated tceniafuges or tape-worm de- 
stroyers. 

The symptoms usually developed by the presence of tape- 
worms are voracity of appetite, alternating with refusal of food, 
loss of condition, inclination to swallow earth, stone, sand or 
ashes ; the passage of soft excrement, mixed with mucus, 
and evidence of internal pain. The only infallible indica- 
tion of the presence of tapo-worm is the occurrence of its 
sloughed-off joints or segments in the sheep's excrement. 
These, the flock-master, unless he made a careful examination, 
would probably mistake for the clots of mucus, such as are 
often voided by the sheep after it has contracted a cold. A 
close inspection reveals their annular structure. 

It is usually lambs that have tape- worms ; they pine away, 
though they may eat all the while ; frequently have diarrhoea, 
or rather dysentery. After death, the white, many-jointed 
worms are found in the small intestines. As soon as the first 
death occurs, the shepherd should make thorough search and 
satisfy himself as to the cause. If there is tape-worm, the 
lambs should be fed liberally on mixed grains with salt, to keep 
up their strength. Some veterinarians recommend turpentine, 
mixed with linseed oil, as prescribed for paperskin in the fore- 
going chapter. But powdered areca-nut, or santonine, are 
considered better remedies for this parasite ; a dram of either, 
given once a day, in a little milk or in grain feed every even- 
ing. After the flock is purifled, two ounces of Glauber or 
Epsom salts may be given to each sheep (one ounce to a lamb) 
dry, or in water, if the sheep can be induced to drink it. 

Other Intestinal Worms.— Professor Simonds, of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England, describes another kind of 
worm, which lays the foundation for diarrhoea, named the Tri- 
chocephalus, or hair-headed worm, which, though found in man, 
exists to a greater extent in sheep than in any other domesti- 
cated animal. These worms burrow their heads into the mucous 
membrane. The worm called Sclerostoma also exists in sheep 
in immense numbers, the two species being frequently found 
together. His method of getting rid of them is by the free use 
of common salt, and sulphate of iron. He gives the salt in 



294 THE AMERICAN MERIHO 

quantities of a quarter to a half an ounce at a time ; and alter- 
nates it with sulphate of iron on every other day. Half a dram 
of the latter is a full dose, even for a large sheep. 

GiD OR Blind Staggers. — I have never seen a case of this, 
knowing it to be such, nor have I seen an American shepherd 
who has met with it. It was probably imported from England, 
and it seems to prevail chiefly in the Eastern States. Unwilling 
to believe, in my earher experience, that a cause apparently so 
trivial as ' ' grub in the head " could destroy an animal, 1 made 
many autopsies of sheep that I supposed had died of blind 
staggers, searching carefully through the entire encephalon for 
the bladder or cyst of this parasite ; but I never f oujid one. To- 
day I am satisfied that they all died from grub in the head, 
which I seldom failed to find, while the hydatid sought for 
could not be discovered. 

Indeed, the only important difference between the outward 
symptoms of hydatid and grub is in the length of time which 
intervenes between the first manifestations and death. The 
grub does its fatal work much more quickly than the hydatid. 
The sheep infested with the latter ceases to eat, stands vacantly 
about with head held slightly up and frequently turned to one 
side ; it seems to suffer from hemiplegia or paralysis of one side, 
as it is unable to ruminate or chew, and the mouthful of half- 
masticated grass lingers long in the mouth, while the green-col- 
ored saliva dribbles down the lower jaw. The animal begins to 
wander aimlessly about, seeking to rub alongside the fence or 
rack, as if for support ; in the yard it has a tendency to go in a 
circle ; blindness, total or partial, comes on ; the wretched beast 
dashes in a sudden spm't against the fence ; it goes down on its 
side in a tremor, rolling its eyes in agony ; after recovering 
itself and falling a number of times it remains on the ground 
and dies in convulsions. 

When the case is long drawn out, the bladder or tumor on 
the brain, by constant pressure on the skull, absorbs it to such 
a degree that a finger pressed on the spot discovers a soft place 
in the plate of the bone, or the latter even bulges out in a pro- 
tuberance an inch or two deep and twice as wide. Twice I 
have seen this phenomenon in my own flocks, and, in rude 
fashion, lanced them, thereby saving the sheep. 

Life History of the Gid-Hydatid. — The veterinarians differ 
on some points, but they are agreed that the dog is responsible 
for the presence of this parasite in sheep, as it forms perhaps 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOlsT. 295 

the best illustration of Steenstrup's scheme of alternate or dual 
generation. That is, two animals, the sheep and the dog are 
necessary for the complete development of this pest. 

A dog infested with the gid tape-worm {Tcenia coenurus) passes 
through a field in which sheep are kept. His excrement will 
probably be deposited near a tuft of grass, or in the fence-cor- 
ner ; probably, also, it will contain one of the segments which 
the worm is continually throwing off, each of which is full of 
ripe eggs. Or, these eggs may have escaped from the segment 
within the dog's intestines, and, passing on out, may be adher- 
ing to the hairs about the anus. The dog enters a pond to cool 
himself, and some of these eggs are washed off, and the sheep 
when it goes to drink may swallow them, or may ingest them 
as it crops the grass upon or near which the dog's excrement 
was dropped, the eggs having been liberated by the rain and 
left adhering to the grass. 

The eggs are hatched soon after they enter the sheep's stomach. 
From each egg there emerges a minute embryo, oval or ovoid 
in shape, having one end of its body armed with sharp cutting 
hooks. With these it bores its way into the tissues of its host 
in various directions. Some of them become encysted in the 
lungs, liver, mesentery, and even in the uterus, each being en- 
closed in a bladder or tumor full of yellowish or greenish fluid. 
These are not further developed, but remain encysted, perhaps 
not materially injuring their bearer, unless their number is very 
great, in which case they sometimes produce death by the in- 
flammation in the peritoneal membrane which they cause. 

Others penetrate the spinal cord or the great nerve-trunks, 
where they produce obscure nervous troubles, or partial or total 
paralysis, and other incurable diseases. They either travel 
along the spinal cord, or enter the arteries and are borne along 
in the blood until they reach the brain. The substance of the 
brain seems to be specially adapted to them, and in it (there is 
generally only one in the brain at a time, though there may be 
as many as four, on its upper surface, in some of its extremi- 
ties, or on its lower surface) they undergo a development differ- 
ent from that which they experience anywhere else in the body. 

The embryo first surrounds itself with a wall formed of the 
brain tissue, and in this it increases in size rapidly, casts its 
hooks and its outer wall, and develops into a rather thick skin. 
There now appears in the center of the mass of cells which con- 
stituted the body of the embryo, a cavity which rapidly enlarges 
and becomes filled with liquid, until the organism consists of a 



296 THE AMEEICAK MERIi^O 

simple spherical bag of about the size of a hazel-nut, tilled with 
a milk-white Huid. The symptoms of gid disease — which first 
appear seventeen days after the hatching of the embryo — are 
now at their height. Upon the outer surface of the cyst, or 
*' vesicular worm," there now appear at many points (from three 
hundred to one thousand) depressions, which gradually elongate 
out like the finger of a glove. At the bottom of these pockets 
hooklets now develop, and on their walls suckers, so that each 
depression becomes a perfect "head," scolex, of a future tape- 
worm. These "heads " are easily seen by the unaided eye. At 
this stage the sheep usually dies, and being of course useless, is 
generally thrown out where in all probability it will be devoured 
by dogs.— [R. W. Seiss, M. D.] 

The immense number of these scolices, or heads, of the hyda- 
tid, on entering the system of the dog, would insure an equal 
number of gid tape-worms ; but owing to the extreme difficulty 
of a dog's getting at and eating the brain, it is probable that 
only a very few enter his stomach. And, indeed, one is enough. 
Each scolex anchors itself m the stomach or intestines by its 
hooklets, and quickly develops into a tape-worm. The circuit 
is now complete. The tape-worm grows and forms hundreds 
of segments, each of which is capable, if necessary, of main- 
taining a separate existence ; but they are usualiy cast off, one 
by one, into the outer world, full of eggs ready to do their 
deadly work in the sheep, as above described. 

For some reason, not well explained, it is usually young sheep 
that are infested with these parasites, as with all others that 
take up their abode in the viscera. 

The Operation for Staggers. — I quote further from Dr. 
Seiss: "In the first stages of the disease the position of the 
tumor can only be decided upon by a thoroughly educated 
veterinary surgeon, but in the later stages, when the head bones 
have been softened and bulged forward, anyone accustomed to 
handling animals can locate the cyst by carefully feeling the 
head. In either case, the best mode of operating is as follows : 
With a sharp knife an incision, an inch in length, is made di- 
rectly over the tumor down to the bone, which should be cleared 
just sufficiently to permit the passage of a small drill (one a 
fifth of an inch in diameter is quite large enough). The skuU 
is carefully penetrated with the drill, great care being taken not 
to injure the membranes of the brain. The cyst is then punc- 
tured with the needle of a strong hypodermic syringe, its con- 
tents withdrawn, and the following fluid injected in its place : 



FOE WOOL AND MUTTON". 297 

Carbolic acid (pure crystals), forty grains ; alcohol, one fluid 
ounce ; mix, and inject half a teaspoonful ; this is allowed to 
remain for a minute or two, and then in turn withdrawn. The 
wound should then be carefully washed, * * * left open, 
and daily cleansed with a gentle stream of pure, cold water, to 
each pint of which thirty grains of pure carbolic acid have been 
added, and kept covered with a compress, wet with the same 
fluid." 

Prevention. — As with all these obscure parasitic diseases, 
prevention is a hundred times better than cure. All sheep 
which have died of staggers ought not to be thrown out for 
the dogs to devour, but should be buried deep, or burned. All 
strange dogs should be kept from running over the grazing 
grounds of the sheep, or bathing in the ponds where they drink ; 
and if it is found necessary to keep shepherd dogs about, it is 
well to tie them up for a few days, occasionally, and free them 
from tape-worms by giving a few doses of some vermifuge. 
Professor H. Stewart recommends a half -teaspoonful of pow- 
dered areca-nut, mixed with butter, given three times a day, 
followed by a dose of castor oil, and continued for about four 
days. 

. "LuMBRiz." — ^This is the name (probably of Spanish origin, 
and spelled in many ways), which, in Texas, is applied indiscrim- 
inately to the parasite and the disease produced by it. Mr. H. 
Chamberlain, of Nueces County, writes to the Department of 
Agri cult are : "Lumbres, a complaint which up to 1868 had 
annually carried off many thousands of spring lambs, commenc- 
ing in July or August, and operating upon them through the 
fall and winter, until the flock frequently became exhausted. 
This disease follows overflows, and a superabundance of rank 
grasses. It consists of something like a knot of long, small 
worms, resembling hair, in the stomach, the lungs invariably 
becoming infected ; the outward symptoms resembling con- 
sumption in the human race." 

Henry Bundy, writing from Atascosa County, Texas, to the 
Shepherd's National Journal, says: " Lombrieze consists of 
little worms in the fourth stomach ; they are about the color 
and size of a corn-silk and an inch to an inch and a half in 
length. They consume the chyle or nutritious parts of the 
food, so that the sheep or lamb simply starves to death, often 
living two or three months after becoming diseai5ed. The 
symptoms are : A dropsical swelling under the chin, paleness of 



^98' THE AMESICAK MEKIJS'O 

the eyes, lips, tongue, and, if a ram, pale around the roots of 
the horns ; the entire skin is pale ; the animal soon loses appe- 
tite, mopes around, is dehcate about eating, but is always 
thirsty. The blood becomes pale, watery and of small quantity. 
It occurs principally in lambs, but sometimes in grown sheep, 
and the greater the projDortion of Merino blood, the more sus- 
ceptible are the sheep to the disease. There is no certain rem- 
edy known in this section." 

A correspondent in Dewitt County, Texas, states, that by 
feeding a half bushel of corn per head through the winter, fol- 
lowing a wet season, he checked the disease. The editor of the 
Shepherd's National Journal advises a trial of oil of sassafras, 
mixed with an equal amount of castor oil or of linseed oil. 

"Grub IN ihe Head." — This does not require much notice 
in addition to what was given to it under rhe head of ' ' General 
Management." When in summer, sheep are seen to stamp vio- 
lently wdth the fore-feet, run with their heads held close to the 
ground, or huddled together with their heads under each other's 
belhes, they are trying to avoid the attacks of the sheep Gad -fly 
{CEstrus ovis). Many farmers entertain two erroneous notions 
concerning this pest, which seem to be very difficult to eradi- 
cate. The first is that the fly deposits eggs in the sheep's nos- 
trils ; the second is that the resultant worms or larvae, after 
ascending the nostrils, penetrate the brain itseK. The gad-fly 
is viviparous — that is, it deposits living worms in the nostrils. 
The farmer may convince himseK of this by catching a fly aud 
squeezing worms from the ovipositor. Dr. Randall's statement, 
repeated by IVIr. Stewart, has perhaps done more than anything 
else to perpetuate the above mentioned error. 

The larvae, or worms, do not penetrate the brain itself, though 
many farmers would become angry if told so. The brain is 
separated from the nostrils and nasal sinuses, by a firm wall of 
bone, which these parasites never bore through. There are few 
shepherds who have not seen these "grubs;" they are occa- 
sionally found in the feed-trough, in the winter, having been 
expelled by the sneezing of the sheep when grain feed is given 
to it dry. The figures herewith presented are taken from Ran- 
dall ; they show the grub in its natural size. Figure 40 repre- 
senting the half -grown worm, which is wliite, except two brown 
spots near the tail. Figure 41 represents it of fuU size, the rings 
being now dark brown. Each ring has darker spots, and below 
them are others. Figure 42 shows a full-grown larva on its 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 299 

back, the minute dots between tlie belly rings representing 
small red spines, the points of which turn backward. 

The statements of Dr. Randall would leave the reader to in- 
fer—though he does not so state in terms— that the presence of 
the grub in the frontal sinuses, brings on a fatal crisis only late 
in the winter or early in the spring. This is true of sheep 
beyond the age of one year ; but lambs, probably from the 
greater tenderness of their tissues, cannot carry these hostile 
guests so long. I have frequently known them to succumb 
as early as September, and that, too, with lambs yeaned in 
April ! This is not to be wondered at, when the number of 




Fig. 40. Fig. 41. Fig. 43. 

THE "grub" or larva OF THE GAD-FLY. 

grubs in one lamb's head reaches as high as thirteen, as attested 
by my friend, Mr. J. Chadwick, a careful observer. We have 
only to consider how delicate and acutely sensitive is the mem- 
brane lining the nasal passages, purposely so made for the pro- 
tection of the nose and the assistance of the sense of smell (to 
which end it consists largely of a ramification of the olfactory 
nerve), to understand the sudden and violent fatality following 
the apparently slight irritation produced by this parasite. 

Symptoms.— These have already been sufficiently detailed un- 
der the heading of ' ' Staggers. " Blood-streaked mucus is gener- 
ally seen issuing from the nostrils when the grub is present, but 
not with hydatid on the brain. I may here repeat what was 
there stated, that a fatal termination may generally be expected 
in four or five days after the symptoms of grub begin to be 
manifest. 

Treatment.— The natural and simple preventives are: plenty 
of dust for the sheep to lie in, and stamp in, long grass to graze, 
sheds for them to lie in during the middle of the day. Many 
American shepherds recommend tar smeared in the bottom of 
the salt-trough. Tar is alkaline, and is apt to take the hair off 
of the nose, besides rendering the hair follicles diseased and 
unproductive. The Scotch shepherds mix tar with whale oil ; 
or, better still, apply the whale oil by itself, rubbing it over the 



300 THE AMEEICAi^ MERIll^^O 

nose frequently. They apply it toward evening, as the gad-fly 
is busiest just before sunset. 

Another good preventive is an ointment made of : Beeswax, 
one pound ; linseed oil, one pint ; carbolic acid, four ounces ; 
melt the wax and oil together, adding two ounces of common 
rosin to give body ; then, as it is cooling, stir in the carbolic 
acid. This should be rubbed over the face and nose, once in 
two or three days, during July and August. 

A canvass face-cover, smeared with this mixture or with one 
of asaf oetida and tallow, may be hung in such fashion as not to 
interfere with the sight, or with grazing, and yet protect the 
lamb against the fly. 

When the grubs have obtained a foot-hold, fumigation gener- 
ally avails little. It is best to procure at the drug store (price 
about one dollar) an elastic bulb-syringe, with a small noz- 
zle six inches long. Mix turpentine and linseed oil in equal 
parts. Accustom yourself to the action of the syringe so that 
you can gauge it accurately. Let the affected sheep stand before 
you in a natural position, and carefully probe the nostril with 
the nozzle until you find its bearing and depth (the nozzle will 
pass up a surprising distance — six inches in a grown sheep). 
Then charge the syringe, introduce it to the extremity of the 
nasal cavity, and with a quick pressure inject about a teaspoon- 
ful of the mixture. Withdraw at once and let the sheep recover 
somewhat from the effects of the shot, then treat the other nos- 
tril in the same way. 

If the summer has been dry and hot, it is best to treat every 
lamb in this manner at weaning. Great care must be used not 
to strangle the lambs with the turpentine. Keep the mixture 
well shaken. 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOIS". 301 

CHAPTEE XXIX. 

EXTERNAL PARASITES. 

It is well known that the wool of sheep is inhabited by a con- 
siderable number of parasites peculiar to the animal, which 
seem to subsist on the yolk. M. Levoiturier, of Elbeuf , France, 
in a communication to the French Acclimitation Society, stated 
the results of an examination as to the number of the coleoptera 
found in wools from different parts of the world. In Australian 
wool, he found forty-seven species of insects ; that from the 
Cape of Good Hope, fifty-two ; Buenos Ayres, thirty ; Spain, 
sixteen ; Russia, six. But these insects, while perhaps con- 
tributing something to what is known as '"wool-sorter's dis- 
ease," are not supposed to prey on the sheep itself. 

The Scab Insect {Acarus scahici). — This is the most univer- 
sally distributed scourge of the sheep, though not the most fatal ; 
perhaps nine-tenths of the area of the various countries princi- 
pally occupied by the Merino are subject to its visitations. 
For, Uke the itch in man, the yellows in the peach, and many 
other diseases, the scab is caused by a parasite. That is, the 
actual scab, or crust, is formed from the exudation which comes 
from the puncture made by this insect. But there are, un- 
doubtedly, predisposing conditions of the sheep itself, caused by 
climate, atmosphere, dust, heat, etc., which invite the attacks 
of the scab insect. Else, why does it prevail in one part of the 
United States and not in another ? 

The insect is hatched from an Qgg deposited by the female. 
One male insect suffices for the fecundation of several females ; 
the latter are about twice as large as the former, but shorter- 
lived. The eggs are laid in the pores of the skin, or in the 
depressions of a scab already formed, vast numbers being laid 
by one female ; the eggs hatch in three days, and the young 
insects at once bore into the skin, causing irritation and itching. 
Watery pustules arise where the insects entered ; the sheep, in 
torment, scratches and bites itself, so that these pustules are 
broken, their contents mingle with blood and forms scabs or 
scales, which frequently cover large patches of the surface. 

Symptoms.— Sheep infested with the Acarus, first become 
restless ; then, as the insects begin to bore, and the intolerable 
itching sets in, they rub against the sides of the shed, against 



302 THE AMERICAN^ MEEIHO 

posts, trees, etc. ; they seize their wool with their teeth and 
tear it out in mouthfuls. The skin is whitened and thickened 
by the presence of the insects, and soon it becomes moistened 
by the yellow exudation from their punctures. The sheep con- 
tinues to pull out its wool, making a desperate fight against its 
enemies if it is vigorous ; presently a patch is stripped quite 
"naked, while the infection continually spreads in all directions, 
as the parasites increase in numbers. Yellow and brown, or 
bloody scabs now cover the space they have devastated, while 
all around is an irregular ring where they are encroaching on 
the sound skin, and the wool is falling before the assaults of the 
sheep itself. There may be several of these centers of contagion 
and all increase at once, and if neglected they will ultimately 
meet and merge, covering the whole back of the sheep with a 
loathsome crust, if, indeed, the wretched creatui-e has not al- 
ready perished. 

Patent Sheep-Dips. — The live-stock journals of the West 
contain advertisements of a great number of proprietary com- 
pounds, recommended by their several owners, and by flock- 
masters who have experimented with them, as infallible cures 
for the scab. No doubt all of them have some virtue, and 
probably the majority of them, at the outset of their manufac- 
ture, were sufficiently efficacious ; but soon cheap adulterations 
creep in, if not positively poisonous ingredients. Most of those 
who resort to them do so because, like the clothing sold on the 
ranches of the Far West, they are "ready-made," and therefore 
save some time and trouble, which would be required in com- 
pounding one's own prescriptions. But the shepherd who cares 
to do his work well had better stick to the home-made article 
composed of tobacco, or of sulphur and lime, as described below. 
Of course, this is more or less off ensive to lambs whose mothers 
have been immersed in it ; but the same objection lies equally 
against the patent dips, if they are strong enough to kill the 
acarus. If the novice has a friend who is a veteran shepherd, 
and who can unequivocally recommend some patent dip, from 
his own experience, that is well enough. If not, he had better 
use the home-made articles, even if they should be a little more 
expensive, rather than experiment with proprietary dips. 

''Handling." — Mercurial ointment is sometimes applied by 
hand ; a little wool is clipped off, and the ointment is well 
rubbed in around the scab indication. A pint of kerosene and 
a gallon of buttermilk, mixed and thoroughly rubbed in ; or a 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOif. 303 

quart of kerosene and a gallon of any cheap oil, say fish oil ; or 
mercurial ointment, olive oil and a little turpentine ; or sulphur, 
tar and lard, equal parts — all are effectiTe if thoroughly worked 
into the wool. In California a ' ' dope " of sulphur and linseed 
oil ia applied with a swab or a " soap-root brush," and is found 
efficacious. 

But with flocks of considerable size, or where the scab is 
making rapid headway, resort must be had to more wholesale 
treatment ; either the " dipping " of Kansas or the " swimming" 
dip of California. 

The Dip. — Different formulas prevail in different States. In 
Texas and New Mexico the following is often used : Thirty 
pounds of tobacco, seven pounds of sulphur, three pounds of 
concentrated lye, dissolved in one hundred gallons of water. 

In Nevada this is the formula : Sulphur, ten pounds ; lime, 
twenty pounds ; water, sixty gallons. 

A California recipe is as follows : Sulphur, four pounds ; 
lime, one pound ; water, enough to make four gallons. 

A recipe given in Kansas reads thus : Sulphur, twenty-two 
pounds ; lime, seven pounds ; water, one hundred gallons. 

Sulphur and lime are probably the cheapest recipe, but the 
lime is apt to injure the staple j still, this recipe appears to pre- 
vail over all others in the scab-infested regions. The addition 
of arsenic is risky. The chief objections to tobacco are two- 
fold ; it is expensive, and if applied in the spring, when the 
wool is long, it stains the staple, and there is not time enough 
before shearing for the stain to wear off. Probably tobacco 
and sulphur form the best combination known for treatment of 
scab. To every hundred gallons of water there should be used 
thirty-five pounds of good, strong tobacco (if stems or other 
inferior parts are used, there should be more), and ten pounds 
of heavy sulphur. Flowers of sulphur should be used, and not 
ground brimstone, as the latter does not mix so well with the 
dip. This preparation, used at a temperature of one hundred 
and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, will kill all acari, ticks and 
lice, and leave the skin and wool in a healthy condition. But 
this, like all other dips, to insure thorough work, ought to be 
applied a second time, in ten days or two weeks, to destroy the 
aeari that have been hatched out in the meantime. 

Dipping. — For flocks of a few thousand, and more particu- 
larly in the Eocky Mountain region and eastward, dipping is 
employed. I give a diagram and description of the appliances 
used by Mr. David Fox, of Wichita, Kansas : 



304 



THE AMERICAN MERII^O 



Appliances. — 1, Figure 43, is the dipping-vat ; 2, 2 are the 
boilers ; 3, 3 is the dripper, divided into two compai'tments; one 
sheep-yard, with a small, three-corner pen, next to the dipping 
vat, which is of great convenience for catching sheep, all of 
which are ^own in diagi'am. The vat is made of two-inch 
clear lumber, well braced and bolted together so that it is per- 




fectly water-tight, sixteen feet long on top, twelve feet long at 
bottom, which gives four feet slope, with slats on the inside for 
the sheep to walk out of the vat to the dripping floor, six 
inches wide at the bottom on the inside, sixteen inches wide on 
top, four feet and a half in depth. Three and a half feet of dip 
is plenty to work with, but the vat should be deep enough to 



FOR WOOL ain"d mutton. 305 

allow one foot above the dip to catch the splashing of the dip 
caused by the struggles of the sheep. There should be two 
bars across the vat, at the level of the dip, at equal distances, 
dividing it into three equal parts. At each division should be 
a good trusty man. His duties I give below. The vat is set 
into the ground two feet and a half, leaving two feet above 
ground. If the ground is conveniently located to lay an escape 
pipe to the bottom of the vat, it would be a great convenience 
for cleaning out the vat after dipping. This apparatus requires 
to be located where water is plenty. 2, 2 are the boilers, 
which are one on each side of the vat and about six feet from 
it. They are made of one and a half inch lumber for sides. I 
bought fourteen feet plank, sawed them in two in the middle; 
then cut a circle on each end for the ends of the boiler ; then 
took sheet-iron thirty inches wide and eight feet long and nailed 
it solid to the plank, which makes the bottom of the boiler. 
Across the top nail three pieces of one by four lumber, at equal 
distances, to keep it from spreading. These boilers should be 
set on a furnace built up two feet from the ground with brick 
or stone. The space between the two sides of the furnace 
should be eight inches narrower than the boiler, giving four 
inches on each side for the boiler to rest on. The furnace should 
be open at each end, and a flue made of sheet-iron seven feet 
long, and one end made to fit either end of the furnace, so that 
it can be easily changed from one end to the other to correspond 
with the direction of the wind. This flue being seven feet high 
will conduct the smoke out of the way of men and sheep. 

Pens for the Flock.— 3, 3 is the dipping floor, which is six- 
teen feet square, made of flooring well braced underneath with 
joist, and set up on a foundation high enough for the bottom of 
the dripper to rest on the vat. The foundation around the out- 
side of the dripper should be built about three inches higher 
than the supports under the center, so as to spring the floor 
enough to make the dip run towards the center, with a strip 
across the two corners next to the vat, to conduct the drippings 
from the sheep into the vat. This dripping floor should be en- 
closed by fence. A panel fence (5) fourteen feet long is placed 
across the center of the dripping floor. Two of the bottom 
boards of the fence of the dripper on the side next to the vat 
should be cut out the width of the vat, and a small gate (6) 
fastened to the division panel, so that it can be swung to either 
side of the vat, that when one part of the dripper is filled with 
sheep this gate can be swung around, closing the pen that the" 



306 THE AMERICA:N' MERI]!^0 

sheep are in and leaving the other side open for the sheep to go 
into the other side. . By the time this last half of the dripper is 
filled with sheep the first lot will be ready to go out, and con- 
tinue in like manner until dipping is finished. 4, 4 are gates 
to let the sheep out of the dripper. 8 is the yard for the sheep 
before dipping is commenced. It should be built so as to make 
a small, three-cornered pen (9) next to the vat, large enough to 
hold fifty or seventy-five sheep, which would be handy to the 
vat and make it easy to catch the sheep. 

Necessity of Thoroughness.— This yard should be made 
penitentiary tight and so strong that it is impossible for any 
sheep to escape undipped. Should a single sheep get out and 
mingle with those already dipped, unnoticed, that had a single 
living female acarus on it, it would in a short time infect the 
whole flock ; hence, the importance of thoroughness from be- 
ginning to end. 

The Process of Dipping. — Put the tobacco in gunny sacks 
and place them in the boiler, filled with cold water, and let 
them soak, at the least, twelve hours ; then start the fire and 
bring the water to almost boiling. Then let it simmer for six 
hours so as to extract all the strength from the tobacco ; this 
should be done the day before the dipping is commenced, as 
usually the boiling capacity is too small, and with the hurry to 
get done the strength does not get extracted from the tobacco. 
In moderate weather three-fourths of the dip required to com- 
mence work can be put in the dipping vat over night, and will 
still be very warm next morning. The boilers can be filled up 
again at the same time and a good fire left under them ; then a 
good fire, started early next morning, will soon bring it to a 
boil. If run to the full capacity, which is about one thousand 
sheep per day, six good, strong men will be needed ; one to at- 
tend fire and oversee the work and see that every man does his 
duty. This overseer should be the owner of the sheep or the 
one most interested. If the sheep are very scabby, two men 
should be stationed in the sheep pen with a curry-comb or stiff 
brush to thoroughly scratch and break up every scabby patch 
on the sheep, then put it into the vat head first. Now, the man 
that stands at the first division of the vat takes charge of the 
sheep and thoroughly rubs all the scabby spots, and moves it 
easily up and down in the dip in order that the dip can pene- 
trate all wrinkles and folds. This man should occupy fully one 
minute with each sheep, then pass it under the cross-bar and on 



FOU WOOL AND MUTTON-. 30T 

to the second man, who occupies an equal length of time in the 
same manner ; then he pushes the sheep under the second bar 
and allows it to go out of the vat. 

The SwiMMiNa Method.— For very large flocks, and more 
particularly in California and other Pacific regions, this method 
is employed, requiring larger pens, vats and boilers. I give a 
diagram of those used by Mr. Charles Crane, of Millard County, 
Utah, with an elevation of the corral, figure 44. 

A is the chute from a large corral ; jB is a sloping board over 
which the sheep in attempting to pass to decoy pen C, slide 
into tank 2), which is generally twenty feet long, four feet six 
inches deep, and sixteen feet at the bottom, thus giving it a slope 
at the outlet of four feet, two feet wide at top and eight inches 
at bottom, thus compelling the sheep to swim in the middle of 
the tank. ^ is a board fastened in tank with cleats on it, to 
enable the sheep to obtain a foot-hold in walking out. F, F 
are draining pens (water tight), and sloping to sluice box in 
center which carries the dip again into tank D. C is a decoy 
pen containing a few sheep to entice the sheep in the chute. JS 
is a pen into which to dodge sheep not required to be dipped. 
L is the dodge gate. This tank can be made of one inch pine 
boards, and lined with galvanized iron ; No. 20 will do, which 
makes it water tight, and gives no footing to the sheep. K, K 
are pieces of two by six, twelve feet long, bolted lengthways 
of the tank and four feet from each end, and six inches from 
top of tank, leaving a twelve-inch space through which the 
sheep must put their heads, preventing those in the rear from 
ridinr those in front and thereby drowning them, at the same 
time keeping their backs under the dip. While in the tank, the 
scab can be broken up, teeth looked at, and, as the sheep pass 
out, branded. The draining pens, F, F, are regulated by a 
gate at E, and can be filled alternately, thus allowing one pen 
to drain while the other is being filled. An opening is made 
whereby the sheep escape from the draining floors, and can 
then be combed. 

Many dispense with the sloping board, B, and use pen, H; par- 
ticularly when the ewes are heavy with lamb, the sheep are 
dropped carefully into tlie tank, rump first. A boy is often 
placed behind the sloping board B, with a short stick, to push 
the sheep in as they pass over it. A man or two stands at the 
tank to regulate the passage of the sheep, examine teeth, break 
scab, brand, etc. ; two thousand is a usual day's work, and 
that number can easily be passed through in ten hours. 



THE AMEEICAIs" MERIHO 




FOR WOOL A^D MUTTONS'. 309 

Boilers and Vats. — Two one-hundred gallon boilers and 
two four-hundred gallon store-vats (not shown in the plan) are 
required for a flock of two to four thousand sheep when to- 
bacco is used. Where the storage capacity is limited it is well 
to prepare beforehand a very strong infusion of tob&cco, say 
one pound to the gallon, and dilute it when needed. The to- 
bacco should be steeped in two waters to extract all the 
strength. 

In localities where convenient, and where the expense would 
be too great for one, several frequently join and build a corral 
and dipping-tank, each paying his proportion of the general ex- 
pense, according to the number of his sheep dipped. By a care- 
ful selection of ground expenses may be greatly reduced. The 
dipping station should be near a stream if possible. A V-trough 
carries the water to the boiler, which, when hot, is allowed to 
run into the steeping-tank through a hole in the bottom ; when 
steeped, another plug is drawn, and the now prepared dip 
runs into the tank. 

"Spotting." — The whole flock ought to be dipped twice 
within ten days — once before shearing to remove the scab in- 
sects from the wool, else the flock will infect the shearing- 
floor, and the contagion will be perpetuated ; then immedi- 
ately after shearing, when the skin is exposed, a second dipping 
will ensure a complete extirpation of the insects. But if the 
flocks are very badly infected, it is well to select out the worst 
cases and give them three or four dippings, extra strong and 
hot. After the first dipping let the ' ' spotted " flock be handled 
— that is, examined — and the scabs and scraps of wool removed, 
so that the second and subsequent baths will penetrate to every 
lurking place of the insects. 

The Vat. — This should be at least sixteen feet long, to 
keep the sheep in the water a minute or so, and deep enough to 
prevent it at all times from touching bottom. The vat should 
be tongued, grooved and pitched, and should be closely covered 
up when not in use, to prevent the sun from warping and split- 
ting the boards. If an inch gauge is placed on the inside, and 
the capacity of the vat ascertained in gallons, it may be known 
at any time at a glance how many gallons the vat contains. 

Draining- Yards.— These yards should hold one hundred 
sheep apiece, and be at least two in number, to allow the dipped 
sheep to drip thoroughly before they are turned out. Corru- 
gated iron, laid down in long sheets, or sheet-iron roofing, is the 



310 THE AMEEICAN MERIKO 

best material for the flooring of these yards. It should be laid 
down on sleepers close together, and the joints or seams pro- 
tected from the tramphng of the sheep by narrow strips of 
of wood nailed alongside. The same kind of strips nailed trans- 
versely on the incline will enable the sheep to come up out of the 
vat without slipping. 

Weten to Dip. — In the spring the feed is better, the days 
are longer and warmer, the sheep are gaining in flesh, the siil- 
phur is more abundant, the wool grows faster, and the sheep 
are thriving and Uvely ; then is the time to annihilate the 
acarus. One gallon of dip applied then is worth two in the faU. 

Never fail to dip the lambs ; if the ewes have the scab the 
lambs will also, and if allowed to escape dipping will surely 
convey it to the flock ; besides, it is extremely difficult to detect 
the scab in young lambs, particularly if short-wooled ones ; dip 
previous to castration, and, if possible, ten days after, leaving 
no living acarus to propagate. 

How Often to Dip. — The best flock-masters in the most 
scabby districts — which seem to be nearly coterminous with the 
alkah in the soil — ^practice dipping twice a year — once after each 
sheariiTg. It not only cleans the sheep of the acari, but also of 
the ticks ; and prevention, with both classes of parasites, is pre- 
eminently important. 

Fences. — In Texas great importance is attached by flock- 
masters to wire or other fences as a preventive of contagion. 
It is claimed that a three-wu-e fence will exclude all sheep from 
other ranges, and thus protect the shepherd who is disposed to 
keep his flocks clean from those who are careless in this regard. 
These fences would require extra strength on the side toward 
which sheep usually " drift" in northers or other severe winds, 
to resist the pressure of large flocks crowding against them. It 
m.ay well be doubted, however, whether a single line of fence 
of any kind would wholly exclude the contagion, since it is 
known that the scab insect lingers for weeks on posts, stones or 
on the ground. Besides that, the well-known gregariousness of 
sheep would lead them to come into close juxtaposition on op- 
posite sides of the fence, allowing the transit of the acari from 
one to another. 

Sheep care less for the barbs than most other animals, and 
they wiU crowd through narrow spaces if they have to leave 
their wool on the barbs. The distance apart which will be nec- 
essary to exclude them securely will depend on the size of th^ 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOI^. 311 

sheep, the tension of the wires, and the attraction on the other 
side. Measure the size of the animals, and then place the wires 
decidedly nearer than these measurements would indicate. The 
accompanying engraving represents a successful fence employed 
on the farm of the late George Geddes. It was first made of 
three barb wires, placed at about the usual distances, the lower 
being about eight or ten inches from the earth bank, the next 
nearly a foot higher, and the third sixteen inches. The sheep 
crowded through the lower wires, and were not deterred by 
them. Two common, smooth and cheap wires were then added 
in the two lower spaces, and these, although insufiicient in 
themselves, operated by crowding the heads of the animals 
against the neighboring barbs, and preventing further effort. 



Fig. 46.— GEOJIGE GEDDES' SHEEP-FENOE. 

The bank of earth, a foot high, made the fence a visible barrier, 
and this, with the shallow, open ditch on each side, deterred 
other animals from running or pressing against it. This fence 
may be modified by nailing a board near the bottom if the posts 
are near enough, but in the form shown in the figure the posts 
may be more remote and the cost less. 

Destroying Infection. — ^When a sheep, from neglect, be- 
comes wasted by its struggles to free itself, and by the fever and 
irritation produced by the scab insects, it is in a very poor con- 
dition for winter, and will probably succumb to the storms. In 
every State infested by scab there ought to be stringent laws 
for the inspection of sheep, by an official appointed for that pur- 
pose, for the protection of the community at large against the 
flocks of men too shiftless to cleanse them. All sheep which 
have died from scab ought to be buried at least two feet deep, 
or their graves covered with brush and stones, to keep away 
dogs ; or their bodies should be burned or boiled down. 

Prevention.— A liberal supply of sulphur in the salt in the 
summer (not in the winter — it is risky then), is efficacious in 



312 THE AMERICA]Sr MERIN'O 

preventing scab. Flowing in the sheep's blood, sulphur is of- 
fensive to the acarus. 

Scab in the East. — Sometimes, though very rarely, a case 
of scab occurs in the Cismississippi, or other of the Southern 
States, where a resort to the wholesale methods of dipping prac- 
ticed in the West would be impracticable. Where this is the 
case, the following remedy may be used : Take palm oil, one 
pound ; lard, or beef suet, one pound ; melt together and add 
soap, one pound ; carbolic acid, eight ounces ; potash, four 
ounces. Mix all together. Take a sufficient quantity that, 
added to one quart of boiling water, will make an ointment of 
the consistency of cream ; part the wool of the sheep and rub 
the affected spots well over, twice a week. 

Ticks and Lice. — The sheep of the careless farmer is nearly 
alw^ays infested with the tick {Melophagus ovis), and, less 
frequently, with the louse {Trichodectes ovis). The tick is so 
well known as to need little detailed description. When filled 
plump with blood, its body is almost red ; when depleted it is 
an evil-looking, grayish, round-bodied creature, about one- 
quarter of an inch long, and the body one-half that in width, 
covered with a very tough skin, which cracks audibly when 
squeezed to bursting. It is propagated by a " nit " (puparium), 
which is nearly round, brownish-red, and about as large as a 
radish seed. By means of a proboscis, as long as its head, it 
pierces the skin of the lamb and sucks the blood greedily, giv- 
ing rise to the saying, " as full as a tick." When the number 
of them is large they make very serious inroads upon the vital- 
ity of the lamb, and it is a singular fact that they seem to thrive 
best on the blood of the lamb that is poorest. 

Ticks seldom work the lambs any injury through the sum- 
itner, or, at least, the abundant feed of that season enables lambs 
to resist their assaults, and keep in good condition ; but as soon 
as they are confined to dry feed, and experience, as is generally 
the case, a slight falling-off, the ticks, in accordance with the 
almost universal law of parasitism, are stimulated into vigor, 
and begin to multiply rapidly. They do not cause so much 
restlessness as does the scab insect ; probably their bite is not 
poisonous. But for this very reason, perhaps, they are even more 
to be dreaded than the irritating scab, acari, for the latter make 
the sheep demonstrative and it attracts attention to itself, while 
the abominable ticks, like leeches, pursue their silent, insidious 
work of sapping the sheep's life-current, wichout attracting the 



FOE WOOL AN^D MUTTOK. 313 

notice of the master until he is struck by the pallor, the debility, 
of the hapless creatures which are being literally eaten alive. 
The first thing the careless shepherd knows the lambs are so 
feeble they are not able to jump over the sill in the stable, and 
then, on catching them and parting their fleeces, he finds the 
inner ends of the fibers grown weak and spindling from defi- 
cient nutrition, and the whole interior defiled with the little 
black excrements of these disgusting vermin. 

Means of Eradication.— From this account it will be seen 
that it is very important to destroy the ticks before winter be- 
gins. The best time for this is soon after shearing ; in a week 
or ten days the ticks on the older animals, which the shearing 
has enabled them to reach, will be so harried that they will 
either escape to the ground or take refuge on the lambs. And 
if these are now thoroughly dipped — though it is always best to 
repeat the operation in about ten days, to destroy any ticks 
which may remain or hatch out, for even the strongest infusion 
of tobacco will not kill them all — they should not have any fur- 
ther trouble from this source if properly cared for thereafter. 

There are numerous remedies proposed for ticks, of which the 
favorite with the majority of shepherds has long been tobacco 
water. 

When the weather is too cold for dipping, resort may be had 
to snuff or tobacco dust, which is cheaper ; in fact, large deal- 
ers in tobacco always accumulate quantities of a gritty dust 
which is of no value to them, and which they will sell cheaply 
or give away. Ten pounds will suffice for one hundred sheep. 
Let an attendant lay a lamb on one side, on a box about two 
feet high, and hold it while the operator parts the fleece with 
his hands and sprinkles in the dust in four rows the entire 
length of the animal. Let one row be a few inches from the 
backbone, and the other about midway of the side ; and on the 
other side of the sheep, two more in the same way. Let the 
dust be well worked down to reach the skin. 

If tobacco water is preferred, refuse tobacco, or tobacco stems, 
may be bought cheap and will answer all purposes ; four pounds 
of stems will make twenty gallons of dip. This amount of dip 
will suffice for fifteen lambs. 

I have tried the arsenical dips and have been entirely satisfied 
with them. Dissolve three pounds of white arsenic in six or 
eight gallons of boiling water, and dilute with enough cold 
water to make about twenty-five gallons. Test the strength of 
it by immersing a few ticks in it ; if strong enough, it will soon 



314 THE AMERICAN MEKI^s^O 

stiffen them. Two wash-tubs, or large iron kettles, will answer 
for a small flock ; one to dip in, the other for the lamb to stand 
in while dripping. A suitable vat can be made by anyone with 
a modicum of ingenuity, the only point of importance being to 
provide a separate compartment or apron with a tight floor, in- 
clined toward the vat, to cany the liquor running from the 
lamb's fleece back into the vat. This floor may be made of 
sheet-iron, painted with Venetian red ; it may slope aU one way, 
or be two-sided, sloping to the middle. Two men seize the 
lamb — one the forefeet, the other the hind feet — and lower it 
slowly into the dip, back downward, holding it in about a min- 
ute, until the wool is well saturated. It matters not if a little 
liquid enters the ears, but the lamb should be so handled as not 
to allow any to splash iQto the eyes ; yet every lock of the fleece 
should be submerged. The operators must have whole hands, 
free from scratches ; with this safeguard there is no danger in 
the arsenic water, if it is thrown into the fence corner after be- 
ing used. 

Prevention. — A judicious and timely use of that universal 
insecticide, sulphur, in the feed will save all this trouble. 1 
have never had ticks on my lambs since I have employed the 
following preventive : If the lambs are ' ' ticky " in the f aU, 
mix sulphur in the salt, at the rate of three pounds of sulphur 
to five of salt, and give the lambs constant access to it, keeping 
them housed from the rains. It does not kill the ticks outright, 
but poisons and renders them nearly harmless, and if continued 
in the salt until shearing-time, the sulphur will drive them off 
without the dipping. 

The Louse. — The red sheeiD-louse is seldom found on the yolky 
Merino, preferring the dry-wooled breeds. Its head is red, the 
body pale yellow, marked with dark bands. It is found on the 
side of the sheep's neck and on the inside of the thighs and 
arms where the skin is bare. It requires the same treatment 
as the tick. 

Maggots. — These have been touched upon elsewhere, in so 
far as preventive measures are concerned. They are the larvse 
of the blue-bottle or blow-fly {Musca vomitoria) and the flesh- 
fly (Sarcophaga carnaria). The Merino, on account of its pecu- 
liar qualities, the yolkiness and density of its fleece, which 
generate filth, and its wrinkles, which retaia it, together with 
rain-water, urine, etc., creating sourness and stench between 
and \inder the folds, is more liable to the assaults of these flies 



FOR WOOL A^D MUTTOJ^. 315 

and their progeny than the open-wooled breeds. Very wrinkly 
sheep are objectionable for this reason, among others ; they 
require vigilant watching during the summer, especially if the 
weather is damp and muggy. But, wet or dry, very hot weather 
is propitious to the maggots with ewes, rams or ewe-lambs, 
which are more filthy than wethers. They ought to be caught 
and examined once or twice a week, and the folds about the 
vent drawn tight or doubled across the left hand, while the 
right, with a pair of shears, clips the wool with the greatest pos- 
sible closeness to the skin beween the wrinkles. Then soft pine 
tar should be smeared very lightly over the surface wherever 
urine or excrement is likely to lodge. Though the daintiest of 
all our animals in its selection of feed, the sheep is the filthiest 
in its habits ; its great fleece seems to render it indolent when 
once it has lain down, and its gormandizing propensities make 
it foul and stinking. 

There is no part of the shepherd's work more odious than the 
fight with maggots ; not one jot or tittle can he relax of his 
vigilance from the time warm weather sets in, until they are re- 
lieved of their fleeces. Maggots will sometimes make their 
appearance on the wethers, on the shoulders, almost anywhere 
on the fleece where a particle of filth has obtained lodgment in 
a wrinkle. If once they reach the skin, they begin to fret it 
away, a serous effusion begins, the wool adjacent soon becomes 
saturated and foul-smelling, and after that, even if the maggots 
are completely eradicated, it is almost impossible to save the 
sheep, as it is continually "fly-blown" afresh. There is no 
hope for it only in keeping it by day in a perfectly dark place, 
or enveloping it in a gunny-cloth blanket saturated with kero- 
sene, benzine, or turpentine. 

To remove or kill maggots there is probably no substance 
better than oil of sassafras mixed with alcohol — one part of the 
oil to four or five of alcohol. Turpentine is too severe on the 
sheep, applied to the raw, lacerated surfaces, already fevered 
by the worms. 

The " Screw-Worm."— In a letter to myself, Dr. D. E. Salmon, 
"Washington, D. C, says of this : " The fly of the screw- worm . 
deposits eggs, but these hatch in a very short time — in fact, al- 
most as soon as they are deposited ; and it is thought by natu- 
ralists that they may at times be hatched at the instant they are 
deposited ; but the fly is really classed as oviparous." It is the 
belief of Texan shepherds that the screw-worm is deposited 
alive, but it will be seen from the above that this view is not 



316 THE AMERICAN MERI:N'0 

quite correct. At any rate it has the advantage of the common 
maggot, for the eggs which develop the latter, frequently dry 
up and do not hatch ; but the screw-worm seldom fails to reach 
the sore or wound near which it is deposited. It is a great pest 
in hot summers, and is very persistent, sometimes being seen as 
late as December. 

For the screw- worm, as for the common maggot, there is no 
better application than the oil of sassafras, diluted as above de- 
scribed. 

Snake-Bites.— In Texas, California, and the Territories, a very 
considerable number of sheep are lost from the bites of poison- 
ous snakes, especially the rattlesnake. It is related that a 
shepherd in Atascosa County, Texas, carried a long cane on 
which he cut a notch for every rattlesnake he kiUed ; and that 
from January 1st to the end of the warm season he killed 
thirty-three. This is much better work than the poulticing or 
fomenting of a swollen leg. If the sheep recovers, the leg is 
likely to be permanently enlarged from the thickening of the 
areolar tissue. If taken in season, cupping will save the animal. 
The most effective treatment, however, is the prompt cutting 
out of the virus in a piece of flesh as large as a dime and half 
an inch thick. 



OHAPTEE XXX. 
DISEASES OF THE FEET. 

Thus far I have endeavored to present the diseases of the 
Merino, not with reference to the importance of the organs in 
which they occur, but approximately in the order of the fre- 
quency with which they attack the flocks. 

Next after the parasitic affections which trouble the IMerino, 
owing to its sweaty, foul pelage, its wrinkles, its gormandizing 
propensities, and its liabihty to the attacks of internal enemies, 
come diseases of the feet— not ranking high in fatahty, but in 
the trouble which they cause the shepherd. The sub-tropical 
climate of Spain gave it its sweaty, greasy habit ; and it was 
also the annual migration of eight hundred to one thousand 
miles from Andalusia to the north and return, kept up for one 
tjiousand, perhaps two thousand, years, which undoubtedly 



FOR WOOL AlsTD MUTTOIT. 317 

caused the hoofs of this breed of sheep to be so abnormally de^ 
veloped as to be the source of a large share of its misfortunes. 

Mr. Stewart states, in "The Shej^herd's Manual," that the 
sheep's hoofs do not grow from the coronet downwards, like a 
horse's hoofs, but from the whole inner secreting smface. The 
sheep's hoofs grow in length by a continual prolongation of the 
outer extremities, just like a horse's hoofs or the human nails ; 
but if by any accident a hoof is destroyed, a new one springs up 
underneath, as Mr. Stewart correctly says, from the whole sur- 
face at once. The hoof proper is soft and thin, probably softer 
than that of the other domesticated ungulate animals ; but, in 
certain cases, when there is an excessive developm(?nt, it is very 
hard ; as much harder than the horse's hoof as in its normal 
condition it is softer. 

Mr. Stewart disposes of this subject rather too summarily ; it 
is evident that his experience has been mostly with the EngHsh 
breeds, which are not so subject to the foot-rot as the Merino. 

Origin of Foot-Rot. — It is a prevalent Western opinion 
that the harmless fouls or scald-foot (sometimes called " ground- 
itch " ) will eventually terminate in the malignant, contagious 
foot-rot, if allowed to run its course. Some shepherds express 
themselves metaphorically, saying that the scald-foot is the 
"blossom" of foot-rot. There is probably a grain of truth in 
this belief ; that is, there seems to be little doubt that fouls 
generally precedes foot-rot, if not always, and forms a predis- 
posing condition thereto. I believe it is pretty generally con- 
ceded, by most students of animal pathology, that foot-rot is 
produced by a species of parasite. Now, why may it not be that 
the fetor of the scald is the source of attraction to this parasite ; 
and that the maceration, the soft pai'boiled condition of the 
cleft between the hoofs affords it a congenial refuge ? I might 
assert, without fear of successful contradiction, that the foot-rot 
never springs up absolutely de novo, from healthy tissues ; that 
it never shows itself where scald has not been present b'-»fore it. 
And I say that no one could hope to gainsay this, because no 
one can tell for the first few days whether rot or scald is pres- 
ent. And does not the hypothesis above broached serve to ex- 
plain the latter fact ? On some soils the scald will never, after 
any lapse of time, resolve itself into the rot, while in others it : 
will ; which is to say — if the above theory is correct — on these 
rot-proof soils there does not happen to be the parasite present 
to fasten upon the milder malady and convert it into the greater, 
while in the others there is. We are painfuUy aware that the 



318 THE AMEEICA:N' MEEIIS^O 

pest of the human family known as the itch is fostered by filth 
and sores. Why may not this be the case with the ovine afflic- 
tion under consideration ? 

There are certain animals which are so liable to the scald-foot 
that they have to be subjected to the shepherd's knife every 
month or so, else they will begin to go about gingerly. These 
ought to be weeded out of the flock, fattened and sold ; they 
are a nuisance and an eye-sore. 

What Foot-Eot Is. — There is so much misinformation on 
this subject that it is essential to define with accuracy and de- 
tail the symptoms of this disease. The farmer is often imposed 
upon by an unscrupulous dealer, with whom foot-rot is a sort of 
" trade capital," as scab is to the buyer of Territorial sheep, or 
alkali to the dealer in Territorial wools. I have known a sim- 
ple-hearted old farmer submit to a dockage of twenty-seven 
cents a head on a flock of well-fattened Merino wethers, on ac- 
count of alleged foot-rot, when there was no disease present 
whatever except the simple scald ! 

Perhaps it would be best to state briefly first, what foot-rot is 
not. It is not a disease of the interdigital canal. This is a duct 
which has its mouth about a finger's breadth above the cleft of 
the hoof, in front, and extends down and back toward the heel 
to a small sack which is doubled back, giving rise to the name 
employed by Youatt — ' ' biflex canal. " This duct secretes a whit- 
ish, viscid unguent for the lubrication of the inside surfaces of 
the segments of the hoof. When sheep run in a very damp 
pasture, this unguent, owing to the sluggishness with which 
the blood circulates, becomes thickened, and upon pressure of 
the foot being made it exudes in a ductile, vermicular string, 
which ignorant men pronounce "the seed of the foot-rot," or 
even ' ' the rot itself ! " 

Neither does foot-rot in the Merino consist in "blisters" or 
boils between the segments of the hoof or about the heel. Boils 
sometimes occur on sheep's feet, it is true, and cause much sore- 
ness, fever and lameness ; but if, when ripe, they are lanced 
and the pus thoroughly pressed out, they will give no further 
trouble, unless they are attacked by maggots. 

Dr. Randall gives a very minute and, in the main correct, de- 
scription of the true malady, which I will condense : " Foot-rot 
begins in the bridge or junction of the cleft, and its primary 
stage consists in a transformation of the skin from its normal 
smoothness, dryness and pink color to a whitish, parboiled and 
somewhat wrinkly condition, accompanied by the fetor com- 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 319 

mon to this malady and the scald-foot. A thin, serous effusion 
sets in, which, as the disease advances in malignancy, assumes 
something more of a muco-purulent character. This corrosion 
of the tissue, accompanied with fever, proceeds downward un- 
til it reaches the line of junction of the skin and the horny walls 
of the inside of the hoofs, when it dives under the latter and 
attacks the body of the foot. Soon it completely invests the 
foot within the covering of the hoof, which it causes to cleave 
from the foot and hang only by the skin at the coronet, so that 
it can easily be wrenched off by the hand. The foot becomes a 
mass of hideous ulceration and is totally consumed, if, indeed, 
the sheep has not already perished miserably from the migration 
of the virus from the hoof to the side and its consequent inva- 
sion of the entire body, with its army of destroying maggots." 
The most important error in Randall's unabridged account is 
the statement that " The offensive odor of the ulcerated feet, 
almost from the beginning of the disease, is so peculiar that it 
is strictly pathognomonic." The most experienced shepherd 
cannot, by the odor, detect any difference whatever between 
foot-rot and the common scald for the first week or ten days. 

Treatment. — There is a large number of prescriptions for 
this malady, for it is so universally diffused east of the one hun- 
dredth meridian, that the ingenuity of many thousands of men 
has been brought to bear in combating it. Blue vitriol (sulphate 
of copper) is so easily obtainable, so cheap, and so efficacious, 
if rightly applied, that I do not deem it worth while to describe 
any other remedy. If any flock-master has ever applied blue 
vitriol, and afterward resorted to something else, that fact is 
strong presumptive evidence that he either did not sufficiently 
prepare the feet beforehand, or did not apply it with thor- 
oughness. 

First, if the disease has made such progress as to have passed 
under the horny shell of the hoof, it will be necessary to hunt 
it out thoroughly. The ulcerative matter may be so accumu- 
lated and hardened in the track of the malady as to prevent 
any remedy from reacihing the real seat of the disease, where it 
is feeding on the fresh, healthy tissues under cover of the hoof. 
Hence, the knife must be employed to lay bare the virus where 
it is at work. All scraps and shells of horn, rendered useless by 
having been separated from the membranes which secrete them, 
should be cut away ; also all remnants of the fleshy sole which 
the disease has killed. The only safe guide for the shepherd is 
to keep cutting off thin slices until there are very plain indica- 



320 THE AMEEICAK MERIiq-Q 

tions that the next stroke would draw blood ; in other words, 
that healthy tissues are near at hand. If a httle blood is drawn 
it should be stopped at once by an application of butter (chloride) 
of antimony ; a flow of blood washes away the vitriol. 

Second, the vitriol ought to be apphed in such form that it 
wiU penetrate most readily to the seat of the contagion. Hence, 
it ought to be dissolved in water — a satiu'ated solution, all it 
wiU dissolve — ^rather than in such viscid, gummy substances as 
red or white lead, tar, etc. Hence, too, the water when apphed 
should be hot — as near the scalding-point as possible without 
taking off the hau* or wool — say one hundi-ed and thirty-five 
degrees Fahrenheit. A kettle ought to be kept boiling near by, 
from which hot liquor can be dipped into the bath when needed 
to raise the temperature. 

For a foot-bath let a box be made six feet long, two feet wide, 
one foot deej), water-tight. Let it be placed about a foot from 
the wall, with a framework or fence at each end and one across 
it at intervals of fifteen inches. This wiU afford each sheep a 
standing-place two feet long and fifteen inches wide. Let a slat 
be nailed on lop of the box, lengthways ; this wiU pass under 
the flanks of each sheep, forward of its hind legs, as it stands in 
its place, and will prevent it from getting its hind-quarters 
down into the vitriol- water, which would stain the wool. The 
opposite side of the box will sustain the breast of each sheep 
and keep its fore-quarters out of the water. It requires one 
man to attend the sheep in the box and keep the solution hot. 
Some vitriol ought to be added occasionally to keep up the 
strength. Two men wUl be required to clean the sheep's feet 
with wet rags and pare away the diseased and dead matter. 

This brings us to another point of the highest importance, 
which is, to make the vitriol solution stay where it is applied 
until it does its work. Hence, the hoofs should be as clean as 
possible from dung and dirt before the application is made, and 
be kept out of water for a day or two afterward. The knife 
must be apphed thoroughly — yet not so as to cause a trouble- 
some effusion of blood — to lay bare the disease m aU its hiding- 
places, cutting away the hoof and the gristly iuteguments 
wherever any vii-us may possibly lurk beneath. To this end 
any measure which will fetch the sheep's feet much in the 
water for a day or two previous to the operation not only 
cleanses them, but softens the hoot, which is an important mat- 
ter, since after some hours' soaking, the pocket-knife will readily 
pare away a hoof winch when indurated by several days of dry 



FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTOK. 321 

weather will yield only to the chisel and mallet. As the opera- 
tion generally has to be performed in summer, it is well to keep 
the flock on dry feed a day or two beforehand, so that the dung 
underfoot may not be so diffusive when the time comes for 
operating. If they can be kept standing on wet straw their 
hoofs will be soaking in the meantime. Then, if driven through 
high wet grass, the feet will be partly washed, and the cleansing 
can be completed with a swab in a tub of water. After the 
paring has been done, let the sheep stand fifteen or twenty 
minutes in a shallow vitriol foot-bath, say two inches in depth, 
strong and hot, as above described, and kept hot by the occa- 
sional removal of some of the liquid and the replacing of it with 
some freshly heated. After leaving the bath the sheep should 
be confined on a dry, hard fioor for one or two days, where, if 
they have been previously kept on dry feed for a short space, 
the manure on the floor will not seriously abate the effects of 
the vitriol on the feet. It may be necessary to repeat the opera- 
tion in two weeks. It is a great preventive and mollifier of 
foot-rot, to drive the sheep often over plowed ground or a dusty 
road ; this serves as a disinfectant. Forty-eight hours after 
the sheep leave the foot-bath they may go into the dust with 
advantage. 

For Small Flocks.— Where there are only a few sheep the 
vitriol may be dissolved by another formula and applied with a 
horse-hair brush, which the farmer can make for himself. This 
formula is as follows : One ounce of verdigris, two ounces of 
sulphate of potash, three ounces of blue vitriol, four ounces of 
nitric acid, four ounces of rain water. Mix in a glass bottle 
with a glass stopper. The horse hair for the brush should be 
tied on the handle with a woolen thread. 

SCALD-FooT (OR FouLS).— This is a slight galling or macera- 
tion in the cleft of the foot, generally produced by wet grass or 
dung. It is liable to trouble the Merino at all ages and all sea- 
sons of the year. In a wet spring, even sucking lambs will go 
around with the greatest apparent distress (it usually attacks 
the fore -feet first and most severely), stiff -legged, as if they 
were rheumatic, and spending nearly all their time lying down, 
rising only to suck and to follow painfully after the ewes. It 
will generally cure itself after a week or two, but if it lingers 
longer than this it ought to receive attention, especially if the 
sheep are fattening, as it undoubtedly pulls them down some- 
what, and prevents them from feeding full. It is often caused 



322 THE AMEEICAK MERIITO 

by malformation of the hoofs — *' bug-homed ;" that is, touch- 
ing only at the extreme points ; turned under at the edges ; 
thick and "clumped," etc. — which produces chafing, and needs 
only the knife to pare away or shorten the hoofs. A little finely 
powdered blue vitriol sprinkled in the cleft, well down into the 
bottom of it, is generally the only application needed. 

As stated under the preceding head, this does not differ from 
foot-rot in its early stages, so far as the unassisted senses of the 
shepherd can discover. I never could detect the slightest dif- 
ference for the first ten days at least. But on some soils, notably 
clay soils, there seems to be no doubt that the scald will event- 
ually terminate in the foot-rot ; while on others — as loamy, allu- 
vial and limestone soils — I know, from many years' experience, 
that scald-foot will never, under the greatest neglect, become or 
lead to anything else. Foot-rot is contagious, and will soon 
run through the whole flock ; but the simple scald will linger 
for months on such soils, confined to a single member of the 
flock, even though it may become so bad as to cause the miser- 
able animal to graze on its knees. Sometimes maggots make 
their appearance on the scald-foot, and, if neglected, they will 
ultimately reduce the foot to a complete ruin (except that the 
hoofs do not come loose, as with foot-rot) ; and still there is no 
genuine rot, and never would be. But the popular ignorance 
and dread of the greater malady are so wide-spread that every 
lameness is at once pronoimced "foot-rot;" and for appear- 
ance's sake, if not on the score of humanity, the scald-foot 
ought to be treated promptly, especially in little lambs and in 
fattening sheep. 

Inflammation op the Interdigital Canal.— Mr. Stewart 
mentions that this is sometimes caused by sheep traveling on 
very sandy or dusty roads, as a result of which, dirt enters the 
canal and produces inflammation of the whole foot. I have 
seen it caused by sheep running in very wet, soft clay pastures ; 
the feet were kept so constantly chilled that the circulation was 
retarded and the unguent secreted in the canal was not expelled. 
This retention brought on irritation. Probing with a small wire 
or the trimmed point of a feather, to remove the offending sub- 
stance (if any is present) ; or fomentation of the foot with hot 
water and vinegar (if the trouble is a result of wet pastures) are 
all that is needed. The general treatment and the means of 
prevention are obvious. 

"Canker of the Foot."— This, Mr. Stewart describes as * a 
very obstinate disease," but I have never seen a case of it. He 



FOB WOOL AND MUTTOlf. 333 

says : "It consists of inflammation of the sole of the foot, 
which gives way to a growth of spongy sprouts instead of the 
natural hoof, and a discharge of white curdy matter, which has 
a most offensive odor." It causes separation between the hoof 
and the fleshy or cartilaginous sole of the foot. From this and 
other statements made by Mr. Stewart, I am very strongly of 
the opinion that he has in mind a case of what in Ohio would 
be called the genuine foot-rot and treated accordingly. He rec- 
ommends thorough cleansing, bathing in a solution of one dram 
of chloride of zinc in a pint of water, and a pledget of tow or 
lint dipped in a mixture of one part of common (not fuming) 
nitric acid with three parts of water and applied to the whole 
of the cankered surface. Repeat until cured. 

FooT-AND-MouTH DISEASE. — This is rare in American flocks ; 
it is very contagious, and may be communicated by cattle, hogs 
or sheep. Mr. Stewart thus describes it : " Tlie first symptoms 
are a fit of shivering, succeeded by fever, cough, and an in- 
creased pulse. This is succeeded by a failing of the appetite, 
tenderness over the loins, flow of saliva from the mouth, and 
grinding of the jaws. Blisters, small and large, appear on the 
mouth and tongue, which break and become raw, causing great 
pain. The feet are swollen and also covered with blisters, 
which break and become sore, causing the animal to walk with 
difficulty and shakiB its feet or kick and lie down persistently.'* 
There is a simple form of it, which usually terminates favorably 
in ten or fifteen days, under a dose of two ounces of Epsom 
salts and a little ginger, once administered, a second dose being 
dangerous. The mouth should be washed with alum water (one 
ounce of alum in one quart of water), and the feet with soap- 
suds or a weak solution of sulphate of copper, then dressed with 
carboUc ointment and bound up in a cloth. If the malignant 
form is present, it is best to kill and bury the diseased animals 
and fumigate the quarters with sulphur fumes, removing the 
healthy sheep for a time. 



324: THE AMEEICAJ^ MEETNO. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM. 

Catarrh. — This is known to most farmers a^ " snotty nose," 
and is called by some veterinarians "coryza." It is, perhaps, 
the most prevalent affection of the Merino in all parts of the 
United States — in the East, caused by dampness and cold, in 
the West, by alkali dust. It may appear paradoxical, but it is 
true that the very covering given to the sheep for protection, its 
fleece, which is a protection in a state of nature, becomes, un- 
der the capricious management of man and the artificial condi- 
tions of the sheep's life, the medium of its most common disease. 
When the wild Indians had no clothing to speak of, they had 
almost no consumption or catarrh ; but when they donned the 
dress of civilization — on one day, off the next — they began to 
die of the galloping consumption. If sheep had no fleeces at aU 
they would be less Uable to catarrh ; as it is, they are more liable 
to it than the other domestic animals which have no covering 
but short hair. 

Dampness is the most pernicious enemy the sheep has ; any 
degree of dry cold is not to be mentioned in comparison. Next 
to dampness, perhaps, is a warm and steamy sheep-house ; it 
makes the sheep more tender and susceptible to cold when it 
goes out-doors. The best possible form of sheep-house is that 
which allows the wind freely at all times —unless in a hurricane 
or a driving rain — to blow through it, but high enough to be 
quite above the sheep's heads. 

The fleece is a protection to the sheep when perfectly quiet, 
but let it become overheated from any cause, either by running 
or by crowding in a close stable, and it becomes a source of 
damage. A man can adapt the amount »of his clothing to the 
weather ; the sheep wears the same thick and heavy garment 
whether it is cold or warm. If this garment becomes wet to the 
skin it cannot change it, as the master would his overcoat ; it 
clings close to the skin until it dries off. It is a cold, wet 
blanket ; it is worse than nothing ; worse than the shortest coat 
of hair would be, as a steady wear. 

The Merino ought to be kept always dry in the winter, or 
else not housed at all. Let the air it breathes be dry and pure ; 
above all, let the bedding and footing be dry i then there will be 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOl!?-. ^ '325 

little trouble from the catarrh. It is the greatest folly to pro- 
tect ( ? ) sheep too much. 

Catarrh is an inflammation of the m.ucons membrane lining 
the nostrils, throat, wind-pipe and nasal cavities. The inflamed 
condition causes an excessive secretion of mucus, which pro- 
duces irritation and cous^hing. 

Treatment. — In the flrst place, the causes must be removed ; 
then the sheep should receive some warm mucilaginous drink, 
as slippery-elm or linseed tea, or a warm bran mash, with a 
little stimulant added, say a half-teaspoonf ul of ginger or gen- 
tian. A lump of pine tar, as large as a hazelnut, smeared on 
the root of the tongue is beneficial. Keep the nose clean by 
washing with warm water in which there are a few drops of 
aqua ammonia. If there is fever and the disease is likely to 
assume the more violent form described below, there may be 
given to the sheep the following : Epsom or Glauber salts, half 
an ounce ; saltpeter, one dram ; ground ginger, one dram ; mix 
with molasses and place on the root of the tongue with a pad- 
dle. Hold the sheep's head up and jaws closed until the dose is 
swallowed. 

Cough. — If the catarrh is neglected, or additional cold is con- 
tracted, the cough will become worse— so bad as to be the most 
marked symptom of the case, showing that bronchitis has set 
in. In other words, tlie inflammation is going down toward 
the lungs, and there is danger. The sheep's appetite begins to 
faU, there is perceptible quickening of the pulse, denoting fever. 

For this there may be administered : Linseed oil, one ounce ; 
saltpeter, one dram ; powdered gentian, one dram. Give in the 
same dose as above, in the same way, gradually reducing the 
amount of saltpeter one half. 

OzcENA. — Sometimes the catarrh assumes the form of a chronic 
ulcer in the nose, discharging constantly a whitish, fetid matter 
for months, w^ithout cough or fever. 

Take sulphate of iron, four ounces ; sulphur, two ounces ; 
catechu, one ounce j mix in four pounds of oat-meal, with two 
tablespoonfuls of common salt. Give a heaping teaspoonful, 
mixed with molasses, to each sheep twice a day. Keep the 
sheep in the stable until cured. 

Influenza. — Sometimes sheep have a persistent running at 
the nose and eyes for a long time, accompanied generally with 
a cough. Once in a while, there is a case where the watery dis- 
charge from the eyes seems to be poisonous, making an inflamed 



326 - THE AMEEICAN MERINO 

streak down each cheek. There is a copious discharge of mu- 
cus, which is occasionally stringy and colored with blood. The 
deaths which occur are among the best-conditioned members 
of the flock rather than the poorest. 

Where these conditions obtain, the following is the treatment: 
Take thymo-cresol, one ounce and a half ; mix with one gallon 
of soft water ; give each sheep a wineglassful twice a day, and 
sprinkle them with the same. Take the affected sheep into a 
tight room, and fumigate them by heating a gallon of the above 
mixture. Or the following may be given : Powdered rhubarb, 
three ounces ; chlorate of potash, four oimces ; nitrate of potash, 
three ounces ; bicarbonate of soda, six ounces ; cream of tar- 
tar, four ounces ; sulphur, four ounces ; mix ; give a teaspoonf ul 
two or three times a day in enough molasses to make a paste. 

Pneumonia (Sporadic Pleuro-Pneumonia), — Pleuro-pneu- 
monia contagiosa, is essentially a bovine disease and not infec- 
tious to other animals. It can be communicated to sheep only 
by inoculation. Sporadic pleuro-pneumonia may occur in all 
the domestic animals ; but the veterinarian who asserts that the 
contagious pleuro-pneumonia ever attacks sheep is in error. 

This is essentially the same as inflammation of the lungs in 
the human subject, and is consequently a very dangerous dis- 
ease — usually the result of culpable carelessness on the part of 
the master in exposing the sheep to cold storms, especially soon 
after shearing. It may be induced by any sudden and violent 
change from hot to cold, even when the sheej) are still protected 
by their fleeces. The symptoms are, a very high pulse and hot, 
quick breath, with the nostrils expanded, thin and tense ; a 
short, hacking cough ; grinding of the teeth ; great restlessness. 
Generally considerable urine is voided. 

IhQ post-mortem examination reveals substantially the same 
pathological condition as that of a man who has died of pneu- 
monia ; the lungs in the stage of exudation or red hepatization, 
being like the liver ; the windpipe full of false membranes, the 
air vesicles almost plugged up with them ; the lobules of the 
lungs perfectly consolidated and separated from each other by 
lighter streaks of reddish -yellow lymph, occupying the inter- 
lobular areolar tissue. Lungs almost rotten, and so heavy that 
they will sink in water ; the surface of them specked with dark 
clots. About twenty-four hours before death (which in this 
disease comes speedily), the sheep so-metimes scour, voiding a 
greenish substance. 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 337 

Treatment. — If the sheep is small and the wool short, it will 
be greatly relieved by poulticing on the breast over the heart 
with Indian meal mush as hot as the hand can bear, renewed 
every ten minutes for an hour. The poultice should be a foot 
square and an inch or more thick. It will be troublesome to 
apply, but is one of the very best remedies, and sometimes this 
is the only thing that will save the sheep. Bleeding from the 
jugular vein may also be employed. Directly after the bleed- 
ing, give two ounces of Epsom salts, in warm water, from a 
long-necked bottle or a horn. Injections of warm water are 
also beneficial. As soon as purging has taken place freely, let 
the following be given : Arsenic, five grains ; powdered muri- 
ate of iron, two drams ; gentian, one di'am ; in oat-meal or lin- 
seed gruel. Or the following : Powdered digitalis, one scruple ; 
nitrate o"f potash, one dram ; tartar emetic, one scruple ; twice 
a day in gruel. 

As soon as the sheep is out of danger the process of restoring 
the waste caused by the loss of blood and the fever must be be- 
gun. A pint of well-cooked gruel (it should be strained if not 
made free from lumps), to which is added half a dram of pow- 
dered gentian or ginger, may be given four or five times a day. 
As with all diseases of the lungs and throat, cold water should 
be freely supplied, and the mucus collecting in the nostrils 
should be sponged away. 

Pleurisy.— This is an inflammation of the pleura or mem- 
brane covering the lungs and lining the inside of the thorax or 
lung cavity. It is produced by the same causes as pneumonia, 
and.frequently accompanies that disease. 

The symptoms are about the same as for pneumonia, but there 
is greater pain, the sheep sometimes moaning in agony. Pleu- 
risy may be distinguished from pneumonia, however, by the 
rattling or gurgling of the lungs when the breath is thrown 
out ; this is caused by the serous effusion in the lung cavity 
or thorax. After death this cavity is found full of water, the 
lungs are covered with hvid patches like flakes of bran, but their 
substance is not impaired unless pneumonia was also present. 

The prescription of digitalis and potash (one scruple of digi- 
talis, one dram of nitrate of potash) may be given, with two 
drams of spirits of nitre substituted for the tartar emetic, in 
linseed gruel, twice a day for four or five days. Or this : Give 
five drops of tincture of aconite in a tablespoonful of cold water 
three times a day. 



328 THE AMERICAl^ MERI2q-0 

After a sheep has had an attack of pleurisy and recovered, 
there is apt to be an adhesion of the lungs to the sides of the 
chest, and this will forever after prevent it from thriving. If 
possible, it ought to be fattened and sold to the butcher. 

Prevention. — See general remarks preceding the paragraph 
on pneumonia. All sudden changes ought to be avoided with 
sheep ; even a change from poor to rich feed ought to be made 
gradually. Sheep that are shorn very early in the season for 
market, if it is cold, should be crowded close together at night 
in a small room to keep them warm. Yet all sheep will endure 
the loss of their fleeces better before they have become debili- 
tated by the heat of the advancing season than they would later 
— that is, they will withstand a greater relative change in tem- 
perature. 

Lambs frequently contract some disease of the throat or 
Ijngs, when follo\^ ing the ewes on windy days in April, after 
they have been turned on grass. Not being occupied in grazing 
and having no exercise, they stand doubled up, or curl down on 
the. ground in the most protected situations they can find, and 
thus contract violent colds. If the ewes cannot be driven to 
some hillside, protected from the wind, they had better stay in 
the sheep-house through the day, fed on bran and clover, even 
if they go a little hungry, rather than expose the lambs to the 
danger of protracted naps on the cold, damp ground. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

DISEASES OF THE ALIMENTARY SYSTEM. 

Constipation or "Stretches." — Early spring or winter lambs 
often suffer from costiveness if kept wholly on dry feed. The 
excrement becomes very dry and hard, it is voided with diffi- 
culty, the lamb sometimes bleats with pain, fever of the bowels 
comes on, and death will ensue if relief is not afforded. A half- 
ounce dose of Epsom salts in water ought to be given to the 
lamb every six hours, until the natural consistency of the faeces 
is established ; then give the ewe and lamb wheat bran . Dry 
bran is always better than a bran mash, because the sheep 
being compelled to eat it more slowly, it is better minglod with 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOTs^. 329 

saliva, and will be more readily and more completely digested. 
Apples, roots, refuse potatoes, corn-stalks or leaves, clover hay, 
or similar laxative food will prevent the trouble ; if the ewe is 
kept healthy the lamb will not suffer. 

When sheep are brought up in the fall and confined in winter 
quarters on dry feed, they are liable to colic or " stretches " un- 
less great pains are taken to make the transition gradually. 

The shepherd seldom perceives that the sheep is ailing until 
the trouble (which is simple costiveness at first) has sufficiently 
advanced to assume the form above designated. The sheep is 
observed to stand still and neglect its feed ; it looks round at 
its sides ; lies down and rises ; then stretches itself veiy much as 
if it had just risen from a sleep, with the back rounded down. 
Occasionally it has violent colic, lies on the ground, struggles, 
and frets away the earth with its feet in a semicircle. 

If nothing else is convenient, a handful of common salt will 
often suffice to relieve the sheep. Let it be turned upon its back 
and a tablespoonful at a time dropped well down upon the root 
of the tongue, the jaws being held until the salt is swallowed. 
Salt and water would be better. 

Two ounces of Epsom, salts or a half-teacupf ul of raw linseed 
oil will serve the same purpose ; give the salts in water, from 
a long wine-bottle or a cow's-horn. Or give a teaspoonful of 
sulphur mixed with molasses or lard and placed on the root of 
the tongue. If the sheep is valuable and seems to be in great 
distress, it is well to reduce the risks as much as possible by 
giving an injection of warm water. It may be necessary to 
repeat it several times before the engorged bowels are fully 
relieved. The hind-quarters should be held up almost perpen- 
dicular to allow the enema to work down and dissolve the hard- 
ened faeces. 

When sheep are brought up in the fall and turned on dry 
feed, if they have free access to salt and sulphur (one part sul- 
phur to four of salt), it will assist in preventing constipation. But 
the better course is, if practicable, to give the fiock a few hours' 
run every day, for a week, on rowen, rye, turnip-tops, or some 
other green feed, reserved for this occasion, to break the sud- 
denness of the change. Two ounces of linseed meal, or a pint 
of wheat bran per day, will answer the same purpose very well. 
Corn-fodder is better than hay of any kind, except clover, on 
which to make the transition from grass to dry feed. 

Diarrhea or " Scours." — Sheep which take the weather as 
it comes through the winter, running out every day, and are 



330 THE AMERICAN MERIl^'O 

well fed, seldom scour when green grass comes, or at any time. 
But those which have been housed more or less, unless they 
have received roots or apples all winter, or at least for several 
weeks preceding the change, will show a greater or less per- 
centage of fouled posteriors soon after they are let loose in the 
spring. Lambs are more liable to scours than grown sheep ; the 
liability to this trouble steadily diminishes with age, until the 
teeth are broken, when it begins to increase. Very rank grass 
in a wet season, the pasture on low, sour lands, frozen clover in 
the fall, frozen turnip-tops, weeds which have grown watery in 
the shade of corn, are among the causes that produce diarrhea. 

I have seldom failed to arrest diarrhea with dry wheat bran ; 
indeed, bran is the sheet-anchor of successful American sheep- 
husbandry. It is not desirable to stop the scours too suddenly ; 
it is nature's method of expelling from the intestines something 
which is offensive to them. An animal in poor condition is 
more subject to the scom-s than one which is robust — the bowels 
will brook less strain. If the discharge continues beyond a day 
or two, it ought to be checked, for it will then begin to interfere 
with nutrition and may terminate in the much worse disease, 
dysentery, which is a species of blood-disorder. 

The sheep affected with diarrhea should be separated from 
the flock and kept in a lot with little green feed in it, and fed 
on bran until the looseness of the bowels is corrected. If the 
disease is persistent and mucus is voided, give a tablespoonful 
of castor-oil (two to a grown sheep), to remove any matter which 
may be irritating to the bowels ; then follow this up in three or 
four hours with two teaspoonfuls of a strong decoction of oak 
bark or blackberry root, with half a teaspoonful of prepared 
chalk or baking soda, morning and evening. 

The above remedies are simple and easily prepared, and are 
generally all that is required. It is well for the shepherd to 
keep in stock the following mixture or cordial, prescribed by 
Mr. Stewart : Prepared chalk, one ounce ; catechu, four drams ; 
ginger, two drams ; opium, one dram and a half ; to be mixed 
with haK a pint of peppermint water and bottled for use. When 
needed, shake well, and give a lamb a tablespoonful twice a day; 
a grown sheep twice as much. 

Diarrhea is generally a sign of weakness and poverty; in- 
bred lambs are subject to it. It is one of the numerous indica- 
tions of faulty management. In some wet seasons it is so 
prevalent as to become almost enzootic. Exposure to storms, 
by weakening the vitality of the animal, assists in bringing it 



POR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 331 

on. In such seasons, lambs ought to be kept in condition by 
grain-feeding and judicious housing. The shepherd's good 
sense will tell him what kinds of vegetation are to be avoided ; 
if not, he will discover by observation. 

This being a disease of weakness, there is special need of 
stimulation. Hence, to the above purgative, as always when 
tliis class of medicine is given, there should be added a tea- 
spoonful of ginger or gentian. 

Tympanitis or Hoven.— This is an unnatural distension of 
the paunch or rumen with gas, caused by a diseased condition 
of that organ or by a too rapid swallowing of very green, suc- 
culent feed — as clover, rape, turnips, etc. It is not so common 
with sheep as with cattle, yet the shepherd will sometimes find 
a ewe (suckling ewes being especially liable to it, owing to their 
constant strong appetite and voracity), to all appearances healthy 
enough before, dead and much bloated, with a greenish fluid 
flowing from the mouth. I have lost a number of ewes from 
this disease (or, rather, this chemical process which usurped the 
place of digestion), on a field of red clover (which is worse than 
white clover), though they were on it constantly, and the soil 
was a very dry, sandy plain. They would rise at daylight with 
a voracious appetite, eat greedily of the clover while it was wet 
with dew, and be dead before noon. They had free access to 
salt. 

After sheep have been confined to dry feed all winter, espe^ 
cially if they have been too closely housed or in a damp stable, 
there is frequently a diseased condition of the rumen, which is 
manifested by a lessened secretion of the alkaline gastric juices. 
Consequently there is a failure of digestion ; the ingested grass, 
instead of being seized upon and submitted to the digestive 
processes, begins to undergo the simple chemical process of 
turning acid. This condition points at once to an alkaline rem- 
edy. A teaspoonful of water of ammonia in a pint of water 
may be given from the bottle or the horn. 

The puncture of the paunch with a penknife or with a trocar 
and canula, is a desperate resort, and may be needed to save the 
life of the sheep, but should not be employed until other meas- 
ures have been tried. A small stick placed in the mouth like a 
bridle-bit and the ends tied over the head will sometimes cause 
the animal to belch, especially if the paunch is kneaded. But 
hoven is more speedy with a sheep than a cow, suffocation 
comes sooner, and there must not be too much delay in resort- 
ing to the puncture. 



332 THE AMEKICAK MERIKO 

The knife is to be inserted on the left side of the spine, close 
to it, and half way between the last rib and the hip-bone, be- 
cause at that point the paunch is suspended by adhesion to the 
wall of the abdomen. If the sheep has previously been laid on 
its right side the discharge of gas will be unchecked. The punc- 
ture will generally heal of itself, but it is better to take a few 
stitches, as described in the paragraph on Worms. 

Sheep fed on buckwheat and cotton-seed are more subject to 
hoven than those fed on hay, ground oats and bran. Give lin- 
seed oil, three ounces ; turpentine, one dram. Then the follow- 
ing may be given twice a day : Linseed oil, six ounces ; nitre, 
one ounce ; mix, and add glycerine, four ounces ; chloral hy- 
drate, two drams ; mix. Dose, one tablespoonfuL 

If nothing else is at hand, and the case does not yet call for 
the puncture, a tablespoonful of soft soap, diluted with half a 
teacup of water, may be given by means of a bottle ; or a tea- 
spoonful of carbonate of soda (commercial or washing soda), or 
a teaspoonful of chloride of lime in a half -pint of water. A 
tablespoonful of common salt, dissolved in a little water, will 
be beneficial. 

Sometimes, when a puncture has been made, it closes before 
entire reUef is given ; it may be necessary to reopen it with a 
penknife or insert a quill. After the effects of the hoven have 
passed away the animal should receive stimulating food, with 
a little ginger or gentian added. 

Poisoning. — There are many plants or herbs in different lo- 
calities of the United States which are popularly supposed to 
be poisonous to stock — Buckeye (the young shoots and the nuts), 
Laurel (narrow and broad-leaved), St. John's Wort, Indian Pea 
{Phaca Nuttallii), Tarweed, Red Baneberry {Actcea rubra) and 
others. 

First, I will present an extract from the United States Agri- 
cultural Report respecting the so-called " Loco- weeds " or " cra- 
zy-weeds " of the Far West : "A considerable number of j^lants 
has been received. Those most frequently complained of have 
been Oxytropis Lamherti, Astragalus mollissim'us, and Sopliora 
sericea. In addition, there have also been mentioned, and 
some samples also have been obtained of, Oxytropis nmltiflorus, 
Oxytropis deflexa, Malvastrum cocclneum, and Corydalis aurea, 
variety occidentalis. 

" The reports from various correspondents and from widely- 
separated regions agree closely as to the injurious and frequently 
fatal effect upon animals of eating these ' loco-weeds.' 



FOR WOOL Al^B MFTTON^. 333 

" The habit of eating these weeds seems to be formed because 
of the scarcity, at certain seasons, of nutritious grasses. All or 
nearly all of these plants, except Oxytropis, have a bitter, dis- 
agreeable taste, yet after the habit has once been formed the 
animals reject the sweetest grasses. Among the symptoms 
first noticed are loss of flesh, general lassitude, and impaired 
vision ; later the animal's mind seems to be affected ; it becomes 
often vicious and unmanageable, and flesh and strength are 
both raidly lost. When approaching some small object it will 
often leap into the air as though to clear a high fence. Fre- 
quently in these paroxysms horses have died from falling back- 
ward. 

"The time required for these weeds to kill animals varies 
greatly, some dying within three or four days, others lingering 
for a year or longer. Some correspondents state that horses 
seem more susceptible to the influence of these plants than 
either cattle or sheep ; others report that all are affected simi- 
larly. 

" There is some difference of opinion as to the real cause of 
the diseases commonly attributed to 'loco.' Some think that 
the animals suffer not so much from direct poisoning as from 
lack of nutritive food and water. Mention is made of butter- 
milk as an antidote, but it seems not to have proved valuable." 

The first thing to be done in case of poisoning is to remove 
the offending matter from the stomach. To effect this give two 
ounces of Epsom salts in a pint of warm water, and, if the ani- 
mal is very valuable, injections of soap suds naay be adminis- 
tered. After this it remains to counteract the depressing effect 
of the poison upon the nervous system by means of nervine 
stimulants. From my experience with common green tea, I 
would recommend a trial of it in any case where poisoning is 
suspected. 

Buckeye and Laurel. — The symptoms of poisoning in gen- 
eral are reeling or staggering, frothing at the mouth, grinding 
of the teeth, rolling-up of the eyes, nervous twitching of the 
muscles of the neck and the legs. When a sheep has eaten 
Buckeyes there is a partial paralysis of the muscles of the legs 
— tha,t is, the animal is wholly unable to stand, and lies helpless 
on its side, fretting away the earth in a semicircle with its legs ; 
but all the other functions seem to remain ; the sheep notices 
everything about it, bleats for its lamb, eats greedily when feed 
is offered, twitches its ears to drive off flies, makes an effort to 
leap up and run when a dog comes about, etc., etc. I have 



334 THE AMEEICAK MERIlirO 

found common tea an almost unfailing remedy for both Buck- 
eye and Laurel. It will afford more speedy relief from the 
latter than the former ; with the Buckeye the doses may have 
to be continued two or three days. The infusion should be 
made strong — say three heaping teaspoonfuls of the best green 
tea in a pint of water, to be boiled (not merely steeped) twenty 
minutes. This will make one dose ; it may be given in the 
morning, and another like it in the evening. 

Sore Mouth. — This is sometimes thought to be caused by St. 
John's Wort {Hypericum perforatum) in the hay, sometimes by 
any dry feed in the winter. Not only will the mouths be sore, 
bat there will be heavy scabs at the corner of the mouth, on 
the lips and face, extending even up to the nose. Two or three 
applications of copperas water, or of iodine ointment or car- 
bolic ointment will generally cure these sores. To remove any 
irritating cause which may exist in the bowels, give two ounces 
of Epsom salts, or a teaspoonful of cream tartar or of sulphur, 
mixed' in molasses and laid on the root of the tongue. 

Inflammation of the Bowels {Enteritis). — This is called 
** braxy " by the English shepherds. It is not common in the 
United States ; I have seen it but once. I copy from Mr. Stew- 
art's description : *' The first symptoms are weeping and red- 
ness of the eyes, weakness and staggering, loss of appetite and 
rumination, inaction of the bowels, swelling of the flanks, high 
fever and difficult breathing ; a puckered-up appearance of the 
mouth and nostrils, which gives a peculiar woe-begone and 
pained expression to the face ; a tight skin and rapid emacia- 
tion. After death the stomach is found filled with putrid food 
and distended with gas ; the bowels are gangrenous and in a 
state of decomposition ; the liver is partly decomposed and filled 
with degenerated bile ; the spleen is gorged with blood, soft- 
ened, enlarged, and not unfrequently ruptured, ulcerated, and 
and exhibiting a seriously diseased condition." 

In addition to this it may be mentioned that the bowels are 
sometimes marked with yellowish spots, as if stained with bile. 
Again, the intestines and lungs are full of blood ; the gall blad- 
der very large and full of liquid bile. This is a cause of sudden 
death to lambs sometimes, and is classed by shepherds loosely 
under the indefinite designation of " lamb cholera." 

The cause must be sought in conditions of soil and water and 
climate. Low, sour lands, very hot sunshine and bad water 
seem to be the principal causes. Plenty of salt with wood ashes 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 335 

in it, at the rate of one part of ashes to four of salt, is often 
beneficial. Or the sheep may be dosed oDce a day with two 
tablespoonfuls of salt to which have been added a twentieth 
part each of copperas and powdered ginger ; the whole dis- 
solved in a half -pint of water. To try a change of pasture and 
water, with protection from the hot sun, would be the obvious 
dictate of prudence, when the disease is prevalent and quickly 
fatal. 

English sheep brought from Canada to the sweltering, dry 
heat of an Ohio midsummer wilt down quickly and perish rap- 
idly from a disease which appears to be enteritis, and which 
the shepherds call " black rot." 

Foreign Substances in the Stomach.— Sheep sometimes ex- 
hibit a depraved appetite, as, for instance, a ewe will nibble at 
the end of her lamb's tail, biting off joint after joint until it is 
eaten nearly or quite to the root. At other times they will pull 
out their own or each other's wool in little locks, and swallow 
them ; or they will swallow mouthfuls of earth, or gnaw rotten 
wood or other substances not called for by a healthy appetite. 

It is seldom that these abnormal manifestations appear when 
the flocks are on pasture ; they generally occur in the winter, 
from which it may be inferred that they are caused by some- 
thing injurious taken into the stomach. I have found in the 
second stomach of a lamb clots of sand, curd, hay and other 
substances held together with wool. The lamb had swallowed 
the wool when sucking ; it had never been properly shorn off 
the ewe's udder at the tagging season in spring. Grown sh^ep 
eat wool when nibbling in their fleeces to rid themselves of 
ticks, lice, etc. 

These extraneous matters remain in the stomach because it is 
unable to digest them ; they derange its action and produce 
irritation. The sheep seem to be led by instinct to swallow 
earth, sand, rotten wood, as a purge. They act strangely, lose 
their appetite, mope long periods in silence, turn up the upper 
lip, thrust out the nose, throw back the ears, etc. 

Their instinct points in the right direction ; they require a 
purge. Give the usual dose of salts heretofore mentioned as a 
purgative, in thin corn-meal or oat-meal gruel. 

On this subject Mr. Stewart says : "In eating hay or other 
dry fodder, foreign matters, such as nails, pieces of wire or glass 
will sometimes find their way into the stomachs." I cannot 
conceive of a Merino taking its feed in such coarse, ravenous 
fashion as to be able to accomplish this feat ! 



336 THE AMERICAN MEEINO 

Choking. — ^It is risky to allow sheep to run in an orchard 
where they are liable to swallow small, hard apples or cling- 
stone peaches ; or to feed on turnips or other roots cut into 
pieces. They will also sometimes swallow dry shelled corn so 
fast and with so little mastication as to become choked, though 
in this case there is little danger of a fatal result. But with 
fruit or roots there is liable to be a permanent stoppage which 
must be removed. When a sheep is first choked it dashes vio- 
lently about, shaking its head and striking into the air with its 
forefeet. After awhile it stands with its head down, breathing 
hard and with saliva running from the mouth ; the stomach is 
apt to become swollen with gas or with air swallowed in the 
effort to free its throat. 

If the object cannot ba worked up to the top of the guUet by 
the thumb and fingers pressing on the outside of the neck, it 
will have to be pushed on down into the stomach. For this 
purpose employ a small, flexible rod, like a ramrod, well oiled 
and with a little ball of tow wrapped smooth and tight around 
the end to prevent it from lacerating the gullet. Draw the 
sheep's head and neck out as nearly straight as jwssible, intro- 
duce the rod and carefully feel for the obstruction. When 
found, if it does not give way readily, let a few gentle taps be 
given to the upper end of the rod with a hammer. 

CoNGESTioiT 0¥ THE LiVER. — ^The causcs which are said by 
Mr. Stewart to produce this disease have never developed a case 
within my personal knowledge ; but they have, instead, led to 
a congestion of the brain — ^in other words, apoplexy. The indi- 
cations of a congested liver are obvious, though not always 
plainly manifest : Constipation, moping, a yellow tinge in the 
eyes. An ounce of Epsom salts and three grains of calomel 
may be given, mixed in molasses and laid on the tongue, every 
morning until the tone of the liver is restored. The sheep m.ust 
not be allowed to drink much v^hile taking calomel. 

Inflammation of the Liver. — ^This, too, I have never seen ; 
I do not think it occurs often among American Merinos. The 
symptoms are thus described by Stewart : ' ' The system becomes 
fevered ; the nose and mouth hot and dry ; the breath fetid ; 
the ears cold ; the eyes pale and glassy ; the pulse is irregular ; 
breathing is slow, and the expirations short and sudden ; the 
dung is dry, hard, black, and glazed with a greasy, yellowish- 
green mucus ; the urine is highly colored^ scanty, hot, and 
smeUs disagreeably." 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOIS". 337 

Give, twice a day, in a warm, linseed infusion, the following : 
Sulphate of potash, two drams ; calomel, five grains ; powdered 
opium, one grain. Warm injections may also be given. When 
the animal begins to mend, give light aud easily-digested feed, 
as wheat bran, crushed oats, bright clover hay, and in the 
drinking-water drop a few teaspoonfuls of vinegar or ten drops 
of aromatic sulphuric acid. 

Dysentery. — I am not certain that I have ever seen a case of 
genuine dysentery, as there is some confusion respecting this 
and diarrhea. Randall says : "The stools are as thin or even 
thinner than in diarrhea, but much more slimy and sticky ; " 
while Stewart and Dadd state that in dysentery the stools are 
generally hard, scanty and mixed with mucus and blood. Dadd 
gives several rules by which they may be distinguished, of 
which I quote a part : 

" 1st. Diarrhea most frequently attacks weak animals ; where- 
as dysentery ofttimes attacks animals in good condition. 

" 2d. Dysenteiy generally attacks sheep in the hot months ; 
on the other hand, diarrhea terminates at the commencement 
of the hot season. 

"3d. In diarrhea there are scarcely any feverish symptoms 
and no straining before evacuation, as in dysenteiy. 

***** 

" 6th. In dysentery the appetite is totally gone ; in diarrhea 
it is generally better than usual. 

"7th. Diarrhea is not contagious; dysentery is supposed to 
be highly so." 

It should be stated that the contagion can be imparted only 
by the dung, but it is better always to remove an affected sheep 
from the flock to enable better treatment to be given. The whole 
flock ought to be looked to, and probably some change made 
as to pasture or water, and some better provision of shade be 
made. The treatment required is, first, a dose of oil (two table- 
spoonsful of castor or linseed, with thirty drops of laudanum 
added), in thin, warm^ strained gruel made of Graham flour. 
The gruel may be continued for several days as a nourishment 
and emollient to the bowels, with a teaspoonful of laudanum, 
added once a day, the gruel to be given in half-pint or pint 
doses, according to the size of the sheep, three or four times a 
day. The quantity of laudanum may be diminished daily as 
improvement takes place. 

Hemorrhoids. — A considerable part of the rectum sometimes 



338 THE AMERICAl^ MERINO 

becomes everted or turned inside out, protruding as a red and 
inflamed tube to the length of several inches. Occasionally it 
will be in the form of a lump as large as a hen's egg or larger. 
The parts are to be carefully cleansed in warm water and 
treated daily with the following ointment : Powdered nut- 
galls, two ounces ; oxide of zinc ointment, six ounces ; mix. It 
may be necessary to put the sheep in a dark place by day to 
protect it from flies. After a few applications of the above, an 
effort should be made to return the everted intestine to its 
proper position, with the hind parts raised above the head. 
Mark the sheep to be drafted from the flock, and get rid of it. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
BLOOD DISEASES. 

Congenital Rheumatism.— Acute rheumatism, in the form 
generally seen in lambs, has been suflBciently treated already. 
But constitutional rheumatism is a far more serious and com- 
plicated ailment, and is one of that list of diseases which speak 
strongly of mismanagement, of neglect or penuriousness on the 
part of the owner. The shepherd is sometimes puzzled at the 
appearance in his lambs of a disease commonly called "joint- 
ail." The joints of the legs, especially the knees, are hot and 
swollen, and the lamb goes about gingerly or stiffly ; there is a 
chalky secretion about the joints ; they are sore to the touch. 
This is one of the manifestations of congenital rheumatism, and 
in all probability the lambs are indebted for it to the ram, per- 
haps, sometimes, to the mothers. 

This kind of rheumatism lurks in the serous membrane ; 
hence, besides the coverings of the joints, we may find it in the 
tendons and ligaments, and in the membranes which cover the 
heart, lungs, spinal marrow, bones, muscles and brain. It often 
passes rapidly from one of these parts to another, from one 
joint to another. The animal affected with this disease is un- 
easy and yet unable to walk naturally ; if a ewe, she neglects 
her lamb ; the appetite is irregular, sometimes accompanied by 
" loss of the cud ; " the dung is hard, the urine hot, high-colored 
and scanty. 



FOR WOOL AN^D MUTTOIT. 339 

This disease is sometimes a result of the weakened vitality 
caused by in-breeding ; it is in general a disease of poverty and 
penury. A rheumatic ram or ewe is likely to transmit to the 
lamb a susceptibility to rheumatism ; it is a blood disease. An 
overworked ram is liable to it. A half -starved flock of lambs 
may show symptoms of it in the spring, especially if they have 
been exposed to cold storms. If a ram is turned into a large 
flock of ewes and allowed to run with them unchecked, his 
lambs the following spring may be expected to be rheumatic. 

Tonic and stimulating treatment is indicated, with protection 
from storms. Give linseed gruel, bran or crushed oats. Begin 
with a mild purge — say two ounces of Epsom salts and one 
dram of ginger. Then follow, twice a day, with : Sulphate of 
potash, two drams ; sulphuric acid, twenty drops ; to be given 
in a half -pint of warm water. 

A pint of strong tea of pennyroyal and sassafras is often 
beneficial in this disease. 

Anthrax Fever or ''Murrain."— This terrible malady has 
appeared sporadically in the Western States, where the rich, 
rank herbage and the sweltering heat of the sun, offer favoring 
conditions ; it is sometimes complicated with inflammation of 
the bowels, and is known locally as " Black Rot." It is related 
to the Texas fever or Splenic Apoplexy, to the " Loodiana^^ of 
India, the " Horse Sickness " of South Africa, malignant sore 
throat, etc. The herbivora and birds are more especially its 
subjects. It mostly affects young stock in the Western States, 
and appears either in the spring or in the early fall, particularly 
when there has been a drought and the recurrence of rains pro- 
duce rank vegetation. It may appear as a result of a too sud- 
den change from poor to rich pastures, or vice versa ; or from 
dry highlands to low ground. 

The sheep gorge themselves on the watery grass in unaccus- 
tomed plenty ; the stomach and bowels are overtaxed, and 
unable to carry forward the work of digestion ; they become 
overloaded with a mass of half -rotten matter, which, instead of 
affording nutrition to the blood, loads it with poison ; and the 
flaming heat of the sun completes the mischief by fevering the 
foul, black blood. The eyes are red, the mouth and tongue in- 
flamed and blistered ; the flanks and quarters are swollen, and 
the skin is disorganized, so that the wool comes out at a slight 
pull. It is chiefly the thriving stock that is attacked ; the old 
and the poor escape,. 



340 THE AMERICAJiT MERIXO 

After deatli the internal organs rapidly decay ; the body, 
when opened, is found full of black blood, and there are large, 
black patches just beneath the skin. If left a few hours un- 
touched the body becomes enormously swollen, so that the legs 
stand out horizontally, the tongue protrudes, and a quantity of 
dark mucus or slime is slowly discharged from the nostrils. The 
flesh and fluids of the body are highly poisonous, hence flies 
may spread the disease. 

The healthy sheep ought to be removed at once from the dis- 
eased, and receive different feed, say crushed oats or bran, for a 
few days, with a limited allowance of short, sweet grass grow- 
ing on a limestone soil, or on healthy, rolling lands, with shade 
and pure water. In the early stage of the disease the following 
may be found efficacious : Carbolic acid, one ounce ; bicarbo- 
nate of soda, four ounces ; water, two quarts ; mix. Give a 
tablespoonful three times a day. Or the following may be tried : 
Sulphate of soda, two ounces ; sulphur, one ounce ; powdered 
myrrh, one scruple. To be given in oat-meal or any other gruel. 
In six hours follow this latter prescription with a teaspoonful 
of spirits of nitrous ether (sweet spirits of nitre) in a pint of 
water. Burn the dead or bury them deeply and secui-ely. 

"Pelt-Rot." — There is a diseased condition of the system 
which manifests itself by a loss of wool, generally at first 
around the hind-legs, then on the sides, and so up to the back- 
bone. The wool peels off clean ; there are no scales or sores, 
but the skin looks reddish, probably from cold or sunbm-n. It 
occurs most frequently in ewes. It may be the result of puer- 
peral fever, or of over-feeding with corn, or there may not be 
any assignable cause, as it wiU sometimes occur with sheep in 
good condition. Treatment : Bathe the sheep with a solution 
of saltpetre, one ounce to the quart of water. 

Plethora. — This is not properly a disease ; it is simply an 
excess of blood, though it may, all the same, result fatally. 
Sheep which have been fed to a very high condition and kept 
with a very Umited amount of exercise, or none at all, are most 
subject to plethora. It is evinced by a flushed and fevered con- 
dition in general, distended nostrils, labored breathing, blood- 
shot eyes, etc. The remedies are too obvious to require anything 
more than simple mention, such as bleeding (from the facial 
vein is the best\ purging with salts or castor-oil, reduced feed 
and more exercise, given gradually. 

But the most serious effects of plethora generally manifest 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 341 

themselves in the lambs of over-fed and over-housed ewes. In 
New York State in 1861-2, and again in Ohio, twenty years 
later, there was a fatality among lambs which amounted almost 
to an epizootic, caused, it was very generally believed, by long 
confinement and dry-feeding of the ewes, and a consequent 
plethora in their systems. A great many lambs those two 
seasons had very sore muufchs and eyes ; they were sore when 
dropped, and at the age of a day or two they frequently became 
blind. Many of them died ; some recovered under treatment, 
which consisted simply in an application of alum water to the 
eyes and some healing ointment to the sores. The plethora of 
the internal organs of the ewes prevented the lambs from ex- 
panding;- to their normal size and strength ; and the fevered, 
impure blood of the dams, by a well-known law of embryology, 
was, so to speak, strained of its impurities while circulating 
through the unborn offspring. 

Anemia or "Pining."— This is a bloodless condition of the 
system, like that induced by parasitism, but without the para- 
sites. It is a disease which affects flocks in the Scotch High- 
lands ; but it has never, so far as my observation and reading 
have extended, developed itself in the Western United States. 
Hogg, the "Ettrick Shepherd," says: "The hair of the ani- 
mal's face becomes dry, the wool assumes a bluish cast, * * * 
and when dead, there is found but little blood in the carcass, and 
even the ventricles of the heart become as dry and pale as its 
skin." It occurs in dry seasons, he states, wherear? parasitic 
anaemia is most prevalent in wet ones. 

Of pining in the Eastern States, Mr. Stewart says : "When 
from continued wet weather the pasture becomes rank and 
watery, the flock appears at first m an excellent and thrifty 
state, but in a few days the animals are found lying listless, 
with drooping heads and ears, watery eyes, and the expression 
of the face miserable and painful. A few days afterwards the 
skin is tightly drawn, the wool becomes of a pecuHar bluish 
cast, the skin beneath of a pearly white color, the eyes are also 
of a pearly, bloodless appearance, and death is busy in the flock." 
The cause of pining is thought to reside in the character of the 
soil itself ; almost the only fact which is known with certainty 
concerning it is that it does not occur on limestone soils. The 
obvious remedies are a change of pasture to the short, sweet 
grasses of some hillside, together with high feeding, giving 
bran, cotton-seed meal, oil-cake meal, crushed oats, etc. 



342 THE AMERICAI^ MESIXO 

Scrofula. — ^This is not only a noxious blood disease, but it is 
also generally hereditary, though there are reasons for believing 
that under certain circumstances, as, for instance, in the prog- 
eny of sheep too closely in-bred, it may be developed even 
where the ancestors were healthy. Its essential element con- 
sists in a taint in the blood, which, though it may for a long 
time lie dormant, will finally manifest itself in the form of 
tubercles in various parts of the body, chiefly in certain glands 
in the neck — the parotid and submaxillary ; less frequently in the 
lymphatic glands, in the mesenteric glands, and some others. 
When these tubercles are deposited in the lungs, we have some- 
thing very much like consumption in the human subject ; and 
it is sometimes called by the shepherd " the thumps," from the 
loud and labored beating of the heart. Indeed, the scrofulous 
condition is very similar to that of the same name in man, in 
whom it is interchangeable with consumption, rickets, etc. 

This is a disease of poverty, overcrowding, underfeeding, 
neglected stables, etc., which, happily, is very rare — at least, in 
its malignant forms — among the flocks of the United States. 
Under the form in which it is most frequently found it is gen- 
erally denominated by the veterinarians " tuberculosis." Sheep 
are often slaughtered — oftener of the English breeds than of the 
Merino — which have the mesentery (the membrane which con- 
nects the bowels together) flecked with small tubercles, even to 
the lowor end of the roctum„ Those are sometimes confounded 
with parasitic cysts. Probably the flesh of a sheep in which 
scrofula has no further extent than this is not seriously im- 
paired for consumption as food — at any rate, not more unwhole- 
some than the flesh of "rotted" sheep freely sold in England ; 
but the farmer who witnesses or performs the disembowelment, 
and is aware of tlie nature of the phenomenon, would not care 
to bring the flesh to his own table. And what the farmer would 
not offer to his own family, he has no moral right to offer to the 
community. 

When the disease assumes the more active and aggressive 
form of tumors in the glands of the neck, the sheep has passed 
out of the blind or obscure stage of tuberculosis, and other very 
obvious symptoms appear. A cough is heard, the appetite is 
feeble and capricious, fever sets in, the eyes and nose begin to 
discharge, and emaciation comes on. The sheep is in a decline 
it has consumption. The skin is drawn and pallid, the body 
almost bloodless. It is now too late to save the sheep ; earlier 
m the progress of the disease the following may be given : Pow- 



FOR WOOL A^D MJJTTO:^. 313 

dered iodide of iron, ten grains ; mix with molasses and place 
on the root of the tongue once a day. Tincture of iodine or 
iodine ointment should be applied to the external ulcers. 

From what has already been stated as to the nature of this 
malady, it is very obvious that a scrofulous animal should never 
be used as a breeder. 

Goitre. — This is an enlargement of the thyroid gland, which 
is situated on the front part of the neck, beneath the skin and 
immediately over the windpipe. This gland is a little larger in 
females than in males ; it is ductless, having no excretory func- 
tion. Goitre in lambs differs from that in the human family, 
inasmuch as in the latter it only appears some time after birth, 
even in goitrous districts, while in lambs it is congenital. This 
seems to show that it is due to some condition of the ewe which 
affects the foetus. That it is not due to lime in the water is 
shown by the fact that it occurs in localities with every kind of 
soil from which Hmestone is wholly absent and where water is 
supplied to the flock altogether from cisterns. It is probably 
due to a variety of causes, among which may be named same- 
ness of feed, overcrowding, bad ventilation, dampness of the 
sheep-house, lack of exercise. 

Prevention. — The breeding ewes ought to be subjected to 
the best possible hygienic influences, the most important of 
which are, good ventilation, dry quarters and abundant exer- 
cise. Some noted breeders think ewes should not receive grain- 
feed during gestation. There can be no reasonable objection 
made to wheat bran and oats, except the trivial one that bran 
may cause the shedding of wool on the wrinkles. Moderate 
feeds of shelled com will not injure pregnant ewes if they are 
otherwise well managed, though, of course, heavy feeding with 
it may prove highly deleterious. I have for many seasons given 
from a half -bushel to a bushel of shelled corn to one hundred 
and twenty-five ewes, up to the time of lambing, without pro- 
ducing any ill effects. Beets and turnips will assist in prevent- 
ing goitre and the accompanying big bellies and weak constitu- 
tions. There is no objection to clover hay, provided the sheep 
take sufficient exercise to keep in health. "When a ewe fills up 
on clover hay she is apt to be lazy and inclined to take too little 
exercise unless forced to it. The water should be close at hand 
and temperate, to induce frequent drinking. But, to repeat, 
the matters of preeminent importance are dry quarters and suf- 
ficient exercise. 



344 THE AMERICAN MERI2*rO 

The treatment is to give some form of iodine, both internally 
and externally. Anew-born lamb can take about a grain of 
iodide of potassium three times a day ; it should be given in a 
little warm water. The common iodine ointment of the drug- 
stores may be rubbed on the tumor. 

Hydrocephalus. — This is simply a form of scrofula, in which 
the disorganized blood, instead of secreting its serous or watery 
portion in the glands of the body or neck, as in other forms of 
scrofula, deposits it in the head (brain). It is present in the 
lamb at birth, the head being sometimes enormously enlarged, 
as if the lamb had been nearly strangled in birth. Indeed, it is 
necessary to wait a few hours before a decision is made, for 
when a ewe has had a very difficult and protracted labor, the 
lamb is likely to have a head so enlarged as to pass readily for 
a case of "water on the brain." If, after six or eight hours 
have elapsed, the head does not assume normal proportions, the 
lamb ought to be killed. If there are many cases of hydroceph- 
alus, either the ram or the ewes or both ought to be changed. 

Dropsy or "Red Water."— In the Far West this disease is 
brought on by the sheep feeding on frosted or snow-covered 
grass, in eating which they swallow a good deal of snow. They 
become " water-bellied," as it is sometimes termed, or have the 
" murrain ; " they are dull and stupid, and stagger, carrying the 
head to one side ; the eyes are staring, sometimes blind, and 
there is obstinate constipation. Death is speedy, and the au- 
topsy reveals a quantity of red water (not blood, as is errone- 
ously supposed) in the abdomen, secreted from, the peritoneum 
or lining of the belly, which is inflamed and red in consequence. 

Prevention is all-important. A free use of salt is recommended , 
also tar. In the case of large flocks the latter could not be given 
readily unless it was smeared in the salt-troughs. Isolated cases 
might be treated with the usual dose of Epsom salts and ginger. 
If there are symptoms of inflammation of the bowels, they may 
be treated as recommended heretofore (see that heading). 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 345 

CHAPTEE XXXIV. 
DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 

Parasites in the Head.— Grubs and hydatids have been al- 
ready treated under "Parasitic Diseases." But hydatids are 
sometimes the cause of obscure nervous affections which may 
be denominated : 

Parasitic Paralysis. — When lodged in any part of the spinal 
cord, working their way to the brain, they sometim^es cause 
erratic movements, staggering, partial paralysis, which the 
shepherd is at a loss to explain. When the hydatid is in the 
left hemisphere of the brain (and, as far as my observation ex- 
tends, the same is true of a grub in the nasal sinuses), the sheep 
will have a tendency to go in a circle toward the left ; when it 
is in the right hemisphere, toward the right ; when on the 
medium line, the sheep will move somewhere near in a straight 
line, but with the head held high. In other words, there is a 
certain " method in its madness," which distinguishes this spe- 
cies of cerebral or nervous disturbance from the diseases of the 
brain which are produced by congestion or undue pressure of 
the blood. 

Apoplexy. — The owner of Merinos is sometimes surprised, on 
going to his flocli which has lately been contined to winter 
quarters, to find perhaps one of his best, fattest wethers lying on 
its side in an unconscious condition or already dead. When it is 
skinned the blood will be found settled thick and dark just be- 
neath the skin,more especially on the side which was underneath. 
In all probability the sheep died of apoplexy. The sudden cessa- 
tion of the exercise which it had freely taken before it was con- 
fined (and more freely, perhaps, than at any other time of the 
year, owing to the growing scantiness of the grass) caused an 
undue increase of blood, which, not being called into play in 
the legs, was determined to the head or congested about the 
body, as above mentioned. A sheep laboring under a stroke of 
apoplexy sometimes seems to be almost, if not quite, blind ; the 
eyes are dilated and staring, but the pressure of blood on the 
optic nerves suspends the sense of sight. It reels and staggers, 
and finally falls helpless on its side. 

Apoplexy principally attacks sheep in the opposite extremes 
of condition — plethora and poverty ; the latter less frequently. 
In a very poor sheep certain disturbances of the digestive func- 



346 THE AMERICAN" MERIN^O 

tions sometimes result in a determination of the blood to the 
head. Naturally, the treatment of the two cases will vary ; the 
fat sheep will be bled and purged ; the poor one ought to be 
nourished and stimulated, although gradually and carefully, 
until the stomach is able to bear the greater burdens. 

When neglected, this form of disease may terminate in an- 
other still more violent and fatal, viz. : 

Inflammation on the Brain.— When the congestion is long 
continued, finally the brain itself becomes inflamed, and the 
animal becomes frenzied. Apoplexy is intoxication, but inflam- 
mation of the brain is delirium tremens. The mad and violent 
antics of a sheep in this condition are without any more system 
than those of a decapitated chicken. Immediate bleeding is 
called for, and in considerable quantity'- ; the blood had better 
be drawn from the neck. Active purging ought also to be re- 
sorted to, by means of the usual (or even one a half larger) dose 
of salts, administered in solution with the bottle or horn to in- 
sure speedy action. Warmth and perfect quiet in a dark place 
would also commend themselves to the judgment of the shep- 
herd. 

Paralysis. — In apoplexy and inflanimation of the brain, the 
affection is limited to the brain itself ; in paralysis a part or the 
whole of the spinal cord is involved. Thus, in the first two 
maladies there is irrational action, or a total and sudden sus- 
pension of action ; in paralysis there is a gradual suspension of 
action in a special function or part, or of the whole system. A 
sheep may have a paralysis of one side of the head, in conse- 
quence of which- one eye will be partly or wholly closed, one ear 
win be lopped down, the head will be carried inclined to one 
side, and the cud will remain unmasticated in the side of the 
mouth. This would be classed as facial paralysis. 

Then there is another species of paralysis which may be de- 
nominated paraplegia, or paralysis of the two hmd legs. Old 
and poor ewes are subject to this when in an advanced stage of 
pregnancy, especially with twins ; it is the result of an mjury 
to or imperfect nutrition of so much of the spinal cord as sup- 
plies stimulus or life to the posterior portions of the body. 

Special or local paralysis may exist in any other part, result- 
ing from injury to or atrophy ot the nerve leading to that part. 
Thus, injury to the pneumo-gastric nerve-trunk will cause diffi- 
culty in breathing and in swallowing ; the breath will be 
labored and stertorous. 



POE WOOL AND MUTTON^. 347 

It is not always easy for the shepherd to determine whether 
it is the brain or the nervous system that is atfected. If it is 
the brain (apoplexy or inflammation), there will generally be 
extreme violence in the actions, followed by collapse or coma ; 
if it is the spinal cord or nervous system, there are not gener- 
ally such exhibitions of insanity, but a gradual loss of some 
function or of nearly all the functions. Lambs which are the 
result of in-breeding, or which have been exposed to cold and 
wet; or their mothers starved or kept in damp, cold stables, 
become crippled, change from one leg to another, become help- 
less. Sometimes grown sheep in high condition, but which have 
been kept in a damp stable, will fall on their sides, helpless ; if 
raised to their feet they will take a few steps, stiff -legged, then 
fall down in a tremble, grind their teeth, and froth at the mouth. 
Ewes which have come to parturition poor and have had a pro- 
longed labor; sheep exposed to cold winds soon after being 
washed or shorn, are hkely to suffer from paralysis. 

In short, poverty and exposure are the prolific causes of pa- 
ralysis ; and this simple statement of itself suggests the general 
remedial measures of warmth, nourishment, stimulation. A 
half teaspoonf ul of powdered ginger or gentian, given in warm 
milk (if for a lamb), or a teaspoonf ul in warm gruel (for a grown 
sheep), or the same amount of aromatic spirits of ammonia and 
water of ammonia, rubbed on the spine, are recommended. 

In mild cases this may be given : Spirits of nitrous ether 
(sweet spirits of nitre), two drams ; powdered ginger, one dram ; 
in warm gruel of some kind. 

Palsy. — Same as paralysis. 

Epilepsy. — In this the behavior of the sheep is very nearly 
the same as in apoplexy, only the attacks are more frequently 
recurrent. The sheep stares about, staggers, falls in convulsions ; 
then after a time it may rise to its feet and stand for a while in 
a stupor. It is thought to be generally caused by a large amount 
of very cold feed, such as frosty grass, taken into the stomach 
suddenly. The only thing to be done is to ascertain the causes 
and remove them. 

Lockjaw or Tetanus. — This is related to the foregoing, but 
the causes are different, and are confined almost to a single one 
in practice— namely, exposure after castration. I have castrated 
many hundreds of young lambs, and find that it matters little 
how the operation is performed or to what amount of dry cold 
(not wind), they are exposed to afterward ; but with mature 



348 THE AMEKICAN" MERIKO 

rams much more care must be exercised, though the idea enter- 
tained by many shepherds, that the spermatic cords can safely 
be severed in no other way than by scraping, is superstitious. 
When a mature ram is to be castrated, the two points of the 
scrotum ought to be cut off, to allow accumulating pus to 
escape while the wound is healing ; then a long slit should be 
made down the front side of each testicle. If necessary, let the 
knife be drawn down a second time and cut into the body of 
the testicle itself ; this will insure the slitting of the membrane 
which envelops it, and which ought to be allowed to remain. 

Lockjaw has few external symptoms except the immovable 
closing of the jaws, with now and then a bent neck and a rig- 
idity of one or more of the limbs. The first thing to do is to 
relax, if possible, the spasmodic contraction of the muscles, so 
that the jaws can be opened and medicine administered. A hot 
bath of some duration will assist in doing this, but great care 
must be taken lest the animal should contract additional cold 
after it. If the jaws can be opened, give the usual purge of 
salts, dissolved in a half pint of warm whisky ; then follow it, 
after two or three hours, with two drams of laudanum. A 
small teaspoonful of ginger, mixed in warm slippery-elm or lin- 
seed tea, or oat-meal gruel, given two or three times daily, will 
be beneficial. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

DISEASES OF THE URINAEY AND REPEODUCTIVE 
ORGANS. 

Mammitis or Garget. — Inflammation of the udder and the 
loss of one or both of the teats, are a somewhat common trouble 
with Merino ewes. It is oftener the free milkers than the 
scanty ones which are thus affected, as a result partly of this 
full supply of milk and partly of neglect. High feeding on 
com during pregnancy is a not infrequent cause of garget. If, 
when the lambs are weaned, the ewes are running on flush pas- 
tm*e and the free milkers do not receive some attention, their 
udders are apt to become painfuUy distended and swollen, and 
thus a foundation is laid for ma m mitis next spring. For, from 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON-. 349 

whatever cause arising, one attack of this affection predisposes 
the ewe to a second. The Merino ewe which has borne two or 
three lambs, is also apt to have a baggy enlargement of one teat, 
which causes the lamb to neglect it, and unless much care is 
used an inflammation will be allowed to set in which will make 
matters worse. Garget is caused, too, by ewes sleeping in cold, 
damp places too soon after parturition. 

A flock of ewes once gargeted wiE frequently show an obsti- 
nate recurrence to it at the next lam.bing-tinie, even when the 
management in the meantime has been faultless. It is not 
worth wliile to repeat the experiment ; a ewe subject to this 
trouble had better be drafted, fattened and sold. 

The inflamed udder should be treated with hot fomentations 
of spirits of camphor, and if the ewe is very valuable, a solution 
of carbonate of soda may be injected into the teats with a small 
syringe and then milked out. Give the following : Epsom salts, 
two ounces ; nitrate of potash (saltpeti'e), two drams ; ginger, 
one dram ; may be given in water once a day. 

Retention of the Fcetus.— Dr. Edward Moore states that 
there is a case on record where a foetus was retained three years, 
and yet the ewe survived ! But generally, if a ewe goes beyond 
one hundred and fifty-eight days, the foetus is dead and must 
be removed, or the ewe will die. When the lamb dies before 
birth Nature generally corrects the mistake by an abortion ; 
that is, the foetus is expelled as soon as life is extinct. But if 
the ewe is weak or unhealthy the expulsion may not take place, 
and relief must be afforded at once. The ewe will give notice 
of a calamity having occurred by moping, refusing feed, by a 
twitching of the ears and hind legs, and, more than all, by an 
exceedingly offensive, dark discharge from the vagina. Mr. 
Stewart recommends the dilatation of the mouth of the womb 
with the extract of belladonna, to facilitate the expulsion, but I 
have not found this necessary. I have had unifornti success by 
proceeding as described on page 89, in an ordinary case of false 
presentation. 

The treatment is as follows : Take calomel, eight grains ; 
extract of hyoscyamus, one dram ; linseed tea, half a pint ; 
mix, and give two tablespoonfuls twice a day. With this al- 
ternate the following : ^psom salts, eight ounces ; nitrate of. 
potash, half an ounce ; carbonate of soda, two ounces ; water, 
one pint ; give a quarter of a pint twice a day. Shake up before 
using. As soon as the bowels have been moved, omit the above 
and give this : Nitrate of potash, half an ounce ; carbonate of 



350 THE AMEEICAir MEEI2S"a 

soda, one ounce ; camphor, one dram ; gum water, eight ounces ; 
dose, an eighth of a pint twice a day. The ewe should be fed 
on warm, thin oat-meal gruel, and if the discharge is very offen- 
sive, a dram of chloride of lime in a pint of warm water may be 
injected into the vagina. 

E VERSION OF THE UTERUS. — A cwe which has a false presen- 
tation, or a stricture of the uterus, will sometimes continue her 
efforts at expulsion until the uterus is completely everted or 
turned inside out, so that it protrudes from the vagina as a red, 
inflamed sack as large as a child's head. It augurs very ill for 
the vigilance and keen-sightedness of the shepherd that he 
should allow labor to proceed so long and so violently without 
giving help, perhaps not even perceiving that there was a case 
of distress. An inexperienced shepherd is excusable for not 
seeing or understanding what is about to happen ; but it is safe 
to say that such a deplorable accident need never occur in a 
flock which is carefully watched. A uterus can hardly be 
everted in less than ten or twelve hours of severe labor. 

In the first place, the ewe must be delivered, carefully and 
gently ; then the uterus should be washed with warm water or 
alum water and returned to its place by some one having a 
small hand, and with the finger nails well pared off. It may be 
everted a second time, and the shepherd must determine whether 
the ewe is sufficiently valuable to justify more thorough meas- 
ures. With a curved spaying-needle let two stitches be taken 
across the vagina with a strong linen thread, each stitch being 
independent, with the thread cut off and tied for each stitch. 
Let tho ewe be laid on her side on a decently soft bed, with the 
head considerably lower than the hind parts (not more than a 
foot lower), and the hind legs be padded and tied with a rope to 
a beam or something, to keep her from shding down. Let her 
be turned over every few hours, for comfort. When she takes 
feed, which should be some nutritious gruel, given in a bottle 
or horn, care must be taken that she does not struggle or get 
into a position to endanger her. After two or three days she 
may be tried on her feet — the stitches still being in — but should 
be kept very quiet for some time longer. 

Where straining is continued, a truss or pad is sometimes ap- 
plied, and tied forward to a collar aroimd the neck to keep it 
from slipping back. 

Retention of Urine or Diuresis. — This is not a common 
disease among Merinos, being confined mostly td the root-led 



FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 351 

English breeds. It is caused primarily by improper feed or 
water, or by sleeping in damp places. In other words, these 
causes produce cystitis or inflammation of the bladder, and this 
in turn brings about a retention of the urine. And when the 
urine is retained in the bladder until it becomes full, the further 
secretion of it is measurably or wholly stopped, and excretion 
of urine (diuresis) sets in — that is, a part of the urine is removed 
from the system through the skin. Moldy hay, wheat straw in 
too great quantities, second-growth clover containing ragweed, 
lobelia, and other irritating weeds, are among the causes of in- 
flammation of the bladder. Excessive feeding on corn or meal 
and the drinking of hard water also sometimes cause it. 

The ram or wether is more subject to urinary troubles than 
the ewe, on account of the greater length of the urinary canal 
and the peculiar vermiform or worm-like appendage at the end 
of the penis, through which the passage is so small that it easily 
becomes obstructed. The symptoms are uneasiness, stepping 
or stamping, striking at the belly with the hind legs, looking 
around at the sides, a bending of the back downward, a con- 
stant dropping of urine from the pizzle, a spreading of the legs 
apart and straining to urinate. As a remedy, take of creosote, 
half an ounce ; acetic acid, two ounces ; water, one pint ; mix 
and keep well corked, away from frost. Give one teaspoonful 
in the water the sheep drinks, twice a day ; if necessary, give it 
by means of the bottle. If the sheep is vigorous it may be bled 
in the neck, taking a half -pint. During treatment it should be 
kept dry and warm and fed on crushed oats or bran, with sweet 
hay and plenty of salt. If there is much fever, give the follow- 
ing to a strong ram : Linseed oil, two ounces ; laudanum, two 
drams. If the fever continues, give the dose a second time, 
one-half reduced. For a small sheep diminish the dose propor- 
tionately. 

Gravel or Stone. — A ram which habitually drinks lime- 
stone water may have a chalky deposit in the bladder which 
effectually stops the passage of urine, and this, of course, is 
fatal. Rams running at large are less apt to be thus affected. 
On a limestone farm a housed ram ought to receive cistern- 
water. 

Stoppage of Urethra. — Earns or wethers on a short allow- 
ance of water, summer or winter, or drinking water that is 
strongly charged with earthy matters, may have a sediment de- 
posited in the urinary canal. The symptoms will be the same 



352 THE AMEEICAIf MERIIfO 

as those described for " retention of urine,** and will therefore 
probably be treated the same way at first. If no improvement 
occurs, the shepherd may take it for granted that a stoppage 
exists. The ram will have to be set on his rump, the penis with- 
drawn from the sheath, and the " worm " or vermiform append- 
age cut off. This may seem unnecessarily summary and severe, 
but it is an operation not nearly so painful to the ram as castra- 
tion, and it does not impair his usefulness in a majority of 
cases. The operation of slitting the penis or urethra lengthwise 
is one which should not be undertaken except upon the advice 
and with the assistance of an experienced veterinary surgeon. 
After the vermiform appendage has been cut off, a gentle pres- 
sure with the thumb and finger will generally remove the sedi- 
ment by causing the urine to wash it out. If after this operation 
the animal appears to have still some retention of urine, the 
following may be given to act on the neck of the bladder : Lin- 
seed oil, three ounces ; extract of belladonna, ten grains. 

Clap. — The ordinary symptoms of this disease are the same 
as in the foregoing urinary troubles, but a white acrid discharge 
finally sets in from the penis or vagina, which is pathognomonic. 
It may occur in either sex, by contagion, or arise de novo 
from excessive work, as when a ram is turned into a flock of 
ewes to serve them promiscuously. If allowed to run its course 
unchecked, this white acrid discharge would ultimately cause 
ulceration and destruction of the parts. The remedy is as fol- 
lows : Spirits of camphor, four ounces; sugar of lead, one 
ounce ; sulphate of zinc, two ounces ; water, one quart ; mix 
and put into a bottle. Then place the ram on his rump, draw 
the penis carefully from the sheath, holding it in a soft old 
piece of linen wet with the above liquid, until the ulceration 
can be traced to its upper limit. Bathe thoroughly with the 
lotion once a day. If a ewe has contracted the disease from a 
ram, a small sponge tied securely to the end of a smooth stick 
and saturated with this lotion may be introduced several times 
into the vagina ; and for greater thoroughness some of it may 
be injected into the uterus with a syringe. 

Bloody Urine or Albuminuria. — This is often erroneously 
called "red water," a designation which correctly belongs to 
the abdominal affection L^lready noticed. It is a disease of the 
kidneys, caused by improper feed or water, exposure, damp 
stables, etc. Sheep thus troubled are generally also weak, fever- 
ish, and seem to lose control of their legs ; the urine is actually 



FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOI?". 353 

stained with blood. Sometimes this disease is very prevalent 
in a flock of ewes — generally in the winter. A change of feed 
should be adopted ; clean, bright hay, or cornstalks with crushed 
oats, bran, linseed meal, and plenty of salt (but no sulphur) 
should be given. Chronic albuminuria is incurable ; ewes 
afflicted with it are unfit for breeders, and should be fattened 
and sold to the butcher. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Fractures. — On the Pacific coast sheep sometimes break 
their legs in the deep cracks formed in summer in the black 
*' adobe" soil. In driving a flock through "a pair of bars," 
which are a nuisance on a sheep-farm, the careless shepherd 
often lets down two or three bai-s at one end only, thus com- 
pelling part of the sheep to jump or tumble over, at the risk of 
fracturing a bone or two. Unless the sheep is very valuable, 
and the owner has a special faculty for surgery, it had better be 
let alone, mostly, for no broken bones heal so rapidly as those 
of the sheep. Splints or a Hgature are apt to do more harm 
than good, unless carefully watched. About all that is neces- 
sary is to put the sheep into a separate pen or yard, to prevent 
it from being jostled. I never knew a broken bone, even in an 
old sheep, to fail to knit without any further attention. When 
the break is in the fore-leg, below the knee, three splints may 
be applied, with padding between them and the leg ; then the 
latter may be bent up and the lower end of it securely tied to a 
lock of wool on the shoulder. If the break is above the knee, 
no splints are needed, but the leg may be tied to the wool, as 
above, to prevent dangling. 

Wounds. — ^A wound in a sheep will heal more readily than 
one in any other domestic animal, if it can be secured from the 
attacks of maggots ; but this is the great difficulty. The sheep's 
flesh seems to be more attractive to these vermin than that of 
any other stock. If a wound occurs in the winter, it is a simple 
and easy matter to heal it ; but if it is in the summer the shep- 
herd will be obliged to expend a great deal of labor and care to 
save the sheep, and it is for him to decide whether it is valuable 



354 THE AMERICA!^ MERIKO 

enougli to justify the trouble. If a wound penetrates the flesh 
even very slightly, it must suppurate in healing, and suppura- 
tion will infallibly attract maggots. Hence, thorough precau- 
tions must be adopted against these. The best thing to do is to 
put a wide cloth bandage around the body, neck or limb, reach- 
ing beyond the wound two or three inches on each side ; sew it 
securely and keep it saturated with oil of sassafras and whis- 
key, kerosene, benzine, or some other substance offensive to 
flies. Otherwise they will infallibly "blow" the wound or the 
pus just below it, and then the sheep is gone. 

If the wound is a simple cut, a clean stitch about every inch 
— each stitch being independent, made straight across, aod the 
thread tied and cut off for each stitch — may be taken in it just 
tight enough to bring the lips of the wound together, but not 
tight enough to pucker the flesh. If the wound is so shaped 
that it has a pocket anywhere, a slit ought to be rhade with a 
sharp knife as far down as the bottom of the pocket, so that all 
the pus can escape. The lower stitch may also be left ^ httle 
slack to secure the same object. A puncture or stab-wound 
may be treated the same way, especial care being taken to pro- 
vide an exit for all the pus quite down to the bottom of the 
wound. A torn and ragged wound — for instance one made by 
a dog — will cost more to cure than the sheep is worth, unless it 
is in the winter or the animal is exceptionally valuable. I have 
known a dog-bite in a perfectly healthy yearling, to suppurate 
for more than three months. Even if the sheep can be saved, 
a dog-bite anywhere about the legs or quarters generally cripples 
it for life, it is so poisonsus. All small fragments of skin and 
flesh should be trimmed off smooth, and the wound stitched up 
as above described. If much skin is gone, the stitches may be 
put closer together and drawn considerably, so as to somewhat 
pucker the skin, as the latter will sooner knit over the wound 
this way than if a good deal of new skin has to be formed. A 
pursed or puckered scar is not a deformity in a sheep, as it 
would be in a horse, and the wound will heal sooner if eveiy- 
thing except the very largest fragments of flesh (and all the 
loose skin) are cut away, than it would if an attempt were made 
to save and stitch together the haiiging shreds of flesh. The 
wound should be bathed at least once a day with carbolic acid 
greatly diluted with water or glycerine (one part of acid to 
twenty-five of glycerine), or with compound tincture of ben- 
zoin. Careful provision must be made for the escape of the 
pus, as above directed. 



FOR WOOL AJ^D MUTTOT^. 355 

Sore Eyes. — Sheep are sometimes seen with red eyes, matter 
formed at the corners, tears flowing from them. These indica- 
tions are proof that they have taken cold or have irritated their 
eyes by thrusting down their heads into stubble or among briers ; 
a ram sometimes has sore eyes, caused by a too tight-fitting cap 
placed over his face to keep him from fighting. The remedy is 
simple ; it consists in the application, once or twice a day, of a 
wash made as follows : Sulphate of zinc, four grains ; warm 
water, one ounce. Pure comb-honey is also good. 

Insect Plagues.— In some parts of the Southern States, 
especially in Louisiana, the Buffalo gnat is exceedingly trouble- 
some to sheep, as well as all other stock. It makes its appear- 
ance usually about the first of August and continues about two 
months, though in very mild winters it lingers until in Decem- 
ber. It is troublesome for only a short time. It tortures 
horses, cattle and sheep fearfully. Great numbers of horses 
and mules are destroyed by them on the *' swamp plantations." 
On the uplands they are not so troublesome. Whiskey is the 
remedy. Grease, mixed with a little tar, pennyroyal, or other 
stinking stuff, and applied about the flank, throat, etc., the 
preventive. The ammonia of stables is repellent to the gnat 
and in these animals are safe from its attacks. 

In the Far West, in Southern Oregon, Northern California, 
Washington, Idaho, Nevada, there are certain regions in the 
mountains where the Ear-fly is a great pest to stock. The pre- 
ventive against this, too, is grease, which is rubbed thoroughly 
on the inside of the ears. 

The prairie-dogs east of the Rocky Mountains, and the ground- 
squirrels of the Pacific coast, are a great annoyance to the 
shepherd ; they destroy thousands of acres of valuable gi-ass, 
gnawing the ground as bare as the public highway. Smoking 
with sulphur, poisoning with strychnine, drowning out with 
water and other expedients have been tried, but they all avail 
little against their countless numbers. Probably they will never 
be wholly subdued until the stock ranges give place to dense 
settlements and the constant plowing of the ground by farmers. 

Vegetable Foes.— In the Far West there is a kind of grass, 
botanically called Stipa spartea, and somewhat resembling 
oats, and popularly known as "Weather grass," or "Needle 
grass." Caught in the wool of the sheep, the beard is propelled 
by the alternations of wet and dry, so as to cause the needle- 
like point at the lower end of the portion, which encloses the 



o56 THE AMERICAlSr MERIXO 

seed, to penetrate the hide of the animal ; the board breaks off, 
and the needle, continuing on its course, penetrates the vitals 
of the animal, causing painful death. The harmless silky 
growth tending backward from the needle acts as a barb to 
prevent any retrograde movement of the penetrating needle. 
These points also stick into the nostrils, nose and hps, and are 
also eaten, and, going into the stomach, cause death. The shep- 
herds protect their flocks against it by the following method : 
Selecting a tract on which they wish to destroy the "Needle 
grass," they make a "fire-break" in the spring by plowing 
a number of furrows around the tract. This preserves the 
dead grass from the ordinary prairie fires of spring ; then in 
June, when the needle grass is well started, they fire this re- 
served tract, and this destroys the needle grass for that season. 
The minute prickles of some species of cacti trouble sheep in 
much the same way ; they enter the skin wherever they touch 
it and penetrate until they reach some obstruction— for instance, 
a bone, against which they work their way in unui i^ey lie flat 
alongside of it. An ingenious citizen of Texas has invented an 
apparatus for bm-ning off these prickles, which, it is claimed, 
leaves the cactus unharmed, thus affording a large amount 
of excellent feed for sheep on the desert. 

Sheep-Pelts — Mode of Tanning. — Sheep which die in the 
winter, unless affected with some such disease as the rot, can 
be skinned ; but in summer this is not so practicable, unless the 
carcass is found immediately after death. It is always best to 
skin the sheep if possible ; then the wool can be pulled after- 
ward or sold with the hide, if near a good market. If the 
market for pelts is not good, the wool can be loosened by a 
thick sprinkle of sharp, fresh lime on the flesh side, moistened 
with water and left to soak for about twenty-four hours. But 
this is objectionable ; the lime corrodes the wool. To tan a 
sheep-skin, after the fat and flesh are well cleaned off, it should 
be put to soak in a bath composed of one pound of alum and one 
quart of salt (this is enough for a medium-sized skin), dissolved 
in sufficient milk-'warm water to cover the skin. Set it away in 
some warm place, turn the skin every day for a week ; then take 
out and wash in warm water, and hang up to dry. When 
partly dry rub and stretch it until dried ; the more rubbing and 
stretching the whiter and better the leather will be. This will 
tan a skin with the wool on or off. 

Ravages of Dogs.— I have no statistics at hand but those of 



FOK WOOL AN^D MUTTOK. 357 

Ohio, as the Compendium of the Tenth Census gives no infor- 
mation on this subject. In 1882 the number of dogs m Ohio 
was returned at one hundred and seventy thousand nine hun- 
dred and eleven ; the value of the sheep killed and injured by 
them, was one hundred and seventy-three thousand nine hun- 
dred and seventy-six dollars. Therefore, a tax of one dollar on 
each dog, if fuUy collected, would not have reimbursed this 
loss, though it would probably have sufficed to pay all the 
actual claims for damages under the existing law. 

Dogs always have been and always will be kept by mankind. 
The only practical question for legislators is. How to assess 
upon and effectively collect from their owners, the damage 
caused by them ? A law requiring the personal presence of the 
sheep-owner and one or more of his neighbors as witnesses, at 
the meeting of the commissioners at the county-seat, is burden- 
some and unjust. These claims ought to be relegated to the 
local officers, and the latter ought to be authorized to make 
allowance for the following items ; (a) value of animals killed ; 
(b) value o'f those injured beyond recovery ; (c) damage to ani- 
mals bitten ; (d) full amount of general injury to the flock from 
worrying and fright, including the estimated results in check- 
ing growth and fattening, and injury to ewes in lamb ; (e) value 
of missing sheep, where the evidence that the loss is caused by 
dogs is as strong as in most circumstantial cases ; and (/) full 
compensation for time lost to the owner because of the attack, 
this to include time used in getting his scattered flock together, 
finding missing and dead animals, presenting his evidence, 
working up his case and collecting his claim. Therefore, let 
owners insist upon a full and liberal appraisal by their neighbors. 

A Dog-Trap. — When a sheep has been killed a square enclos- 
ure of rails may be built around it, twelve feet high, ten feet 
square at the bottom, and the sides sloping inward until an 
opening is left at the top about five feet square. Auy dog can 
easily climb and enter such a sloping pen, but not even a grey- 
hound can get out. Poisoning often makes bitter enmities 
between neighbors, but when a dog is caught alive in a trap 
and his owner confronted with him, the shepherd has a great 
advantage over him. 

DoG-GuARD. — Mr. James Wood gives the following experi- 
ence : " Dogs rarely do serious injury to sheep in the day time. 
The flock requires protection at night. This can be conveniently 
and securely afforded by enclosures made of wire netting fast- 



358 THE AMERICAK MERIJ^'O 

ened to posts. Netting made of No. 15 wire is so strong that 
no dog will tear it with his teeth, and, if six feet high, no dog 
will jump over it. Some dogs might jump a fence of that 
height, but they will not try the netting. The mesh may be 
two or three inches. Such netting is now sold at a very low 
price, and the whole enclosure will cost but little. The door 
should be made of the netting stretched upon a frame. It is 
well to nail a board on the inside of the posts, a foot from the 
ground, to prevent the sheep pressing against the netting, and 
bulging it so far out as possibly to lift it from the ground. 

"For summer folds, the highest and driest available grounds 
should be selected as affording free cun*ents of air, because such 
sites are in every way better for the flock. For other seasons, 
these enclosures should be near the barns or feeding sheds. In- 
deed, there should be sheds affording shelter from storms and 
cold winds within them, or forming the most exposed two sides 
of the enclosures. 

"Of all the domestic animals, sheep are the most easily folded 
at night. They naturally seek some high and dry resting place. 
Upon the Scotch moor lands they invariably leave the pastures 
upon which they have spent the day, to spend the night at their 
accustomed sleeping places. It is the same everywhere. If 
they havb free access to the fold, it will be found only necessary 
to close the Joor at night, for all the flock will be there, quietly 
ruminating. Jt is well to tempt them with a little grain at first, 
and they can be regularly salted there. Unless their pastures 
are very rich and abundant, a little grain through the summer 
will give a profitable return. If the fold is not in the range, it 
is no more trouble to bring in fifty or a hundred sheep than to 
drive one cow home to the milking. A boy eight years old has 
folded a valuable flock for two years for the writer." 

Training a Shepherd Doa. — The winter is a good time for 
attending to this matter, for sheep are at this season more quiet 
and tractable than when full of the fire of summer on a lush 
feed of grass, and they will lend themselves more complacently 
to the work of breaking the pup. For it should be well under- 
stood at the outset, that it is a very uphill piece of work to at- 
tempt to break a green dog on a greener flock. An educated 
band of sheep is almost as necessary to the proper training of a 
pup, as a master of natural tact and liking for this business. 

This last remark leads to the further one, that only a small 
minority of flock-masters are fitted by nature to handle well a 
dog already broken, and a still smaller minority who can bring 



FOR WOOL AN-D MUTTOI^. 359 

up a pup from the start, and shape him mto an instrument of 
good use. A man who has not this natural gift for training 
animals had better let the shepherd dog alone ; it will prove a 
nuisance to him. Neither is it worth while for any one to 
bother with a shepherd dog, unless he has one or more flocks of 
at least a hundred head each. A few sheep are harder to handle 
with a dog than many. 

My experience has beon wholly with the English shepherd, 
or with a cross between the English and the New Mexican or 
Spanish ; I never handled a Scotch Collie. The English dog, as 
inaported into Southern Ohio, is slender in build — almost as 
slender as a hound — with long, silken, black hair, white belly 
and white tip to the tail. He is an animal of remarkable sagac- 
ity and energy, and his native force must be guided with great 
discretion, or it will develop into a scourge. The pup is per- 
haps the most restless of all animals, and one of the first things 
he is likely to learn is, to suck eggs. He must be broken of this 
habit with the utmost rigor, or he will have to be shot. Let 
him never see an egg until he is two months old ; then take one 
boiled hard and hot, put it into his mouth, and hold his jaws 
tightly closed over it until he yells with pain. Every few days 
try him with another ; if he shows the least disposition to 
tackle it, repeat the above dose, or crush between his jaws one 
fillel with pepper. 

The pup should have one master, and only one ; all the other 
members of the family should be strictly forbidden to give him 
orders or cultivate his affections. This applies especially to the 
children ; they will eventually make a fool of any dog. He 
shoald also be restrained at all hazards from chasing rabbits ; 
not only preserved from the temptation as much as possible, 
but punished for the offense whenever he perpetrates it. A dog 
that will break away from his charge, or perhaps dash headlong 
through it, in pursuit of the first cotton-tail that jumps up, is 
of no account and might better be killed. A dog of the purest 
blood can be perverted by the boys to this wretched business, to 
the utter neglect of his own proper calhng. 

He should be kept from the sheep until he is a year old or 
thereabout. If he is of any value, he will be so frisky at a 
younger age as to be unmanageable. At first the master may 
attach a long line to him and teach him to come to heel at the 
word. He must be taught absolute and unhesitating obedience 
at all cost : yet great care must be exercised not to whip him 
too much ; this would break his spirit — make him discouraged. 



360 THE AMERICAN MERi:S^O 

He must be made to come to heel at command, without being 
pulled or struck ; and this must be done on many days. Every 
operation which it is necessary for him to go through at all must 
be repeated hundreds of times ; nothing will impress a command 
on a dumb brute like continued repetition. The most successful 
trainer I ever saw would never go up or down the steps without 
compelling his young dog to follow him, even if he had to drag 
him every one of his fifty or a hundred trips. 

There will be occasional times when a shepherd dog, even 
when well trained, will require a little punishment ; he must be 
taught to come to heel and receive it. But he must be made to 
come up a hundi-ed times, to be petted and rewarded where he 
comes up once to be whipped, and this leads to another remark. 
The master should always give his orders in an even, calm 
voice, devoid of passion ; then the dog cannot tell from his tone 
whether he is to be scutched or not. The best of dogs is greatly 
tempted to run away when he knows from the angry bellowing 
of the master that he is to be chastised. One thing more : No 
dog should ever be allowed to go off after a flogging until the 
master and he have " made up." Some dogs are of such a sul- 
len, unforgiving disposition that they will not make up. On 
sach it is not worth while to waste time any further ; they will 
never do any good. 

At the second stage of the pup's education, he may be taken 
into the barnyard with a flock, the rope still around his neck, 
and made to go around them. The master must go around 
himself ; if the pup does not follow he must be dragged with 
the hne. This must be done scores of times. 1 hen he must be 
made to he down at some place where it is desired to have him 
stay to watch a gap, or the master's coat, or something, while 
the master goes off to the end of the rope. The sheep may then 
be crowded toward him a little, and if he flinches he must be 
made to return to his post, and this over and over again. Then 
let him get up and come to heel. 

The greatest desideratum, perhaps, is to have the dog trained 
to bring sheep to you ; and to do this he must be taught to " get 
out wide." He must never, on any account, be allowed to go 
straight toward the sheep — this is one of the most difficult 
things to prevent — but, if he does it, he must be called back 
and compelled to circle, out wide. Sheep accustomed to a dog 
will run straight to the master if the dog will give them half a 
chance to do so. 

As soon as he is thought to be sufficiently advanced to go 



FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTOK 361 

without t-he rope, the master may take him into a small field 
where there is a flock of gentle sheep, and manoeuvre to get the 
sheep between the dog and himself. Then he can call and toll 
them around after him, compelhng the dog to follow up ; he 
will try to get around the sheep and come to his master, but the 
latter must so manage all the while as to keep the flock inter- 
posed between himself and the pup. After a while he will 
learn to follow quietly along, bringing up the stragglers. 

In crowding sheep into close quarters, a dog that barks is far 
better than one that bites ; and, indeed, a dog disposed to the 
latter course must be restrained and punished, lit is sometimes 
a very diflicult matter to teach a young dog to let the sheep's 
heels alone, and confine himself to barking. If he is held back 
with a rope, and a great noise and hurrah created, he will get 
to barking in his excitement ; and, once the ice is broken, the 
way will bo easier thenceforth. 

The necessary words of command are few and simple, and 
they should never be varied : " Head away ! " (head the flock) ; 
"Get out wide!" (go around 'em); "Hold!" (stop); "Fetch 
'em up ! " " Get over ! " (mount the fence), will suffice. 

Wool Waste and Scourings as a Fertilizer.— According 
to experiments made at the New Jersey Experiment Station, in 
1884, wool waste (rags, shoddy, flocks), contained about eight 
per cent, of organic nitrogen ; other analyses give rather less. 
Its value will of course depend considerably on the character of 
the soil. Experiments under charge of that Station show that 
wool waste alone did not produce the same effect as when used 
in combination with stable manure, but this result might vary 
on other soils. In another experiment, three loads of barn ma- 
nure, one ton of wool waste, and two hundred pounds of bone 
black superphosphate, proved more profitable than fifteen loads 
of barn manure. 

An analysis at Rothamsted, England, gave the following pro- 
portion in one thousand pounds of wool, unwashed : Nitrogen, 
seventy-three pounds ; phosphoric acid, one pound ; potash, 
forty pounds ; lime, one pound, and magnesia, seven-tenths of 
a pound. Pure, washed wool has about sixteen per cent, of 
nitrogen, or more than double the unwashed. Washing re- 
moves most of the potash which is mostly in the "yolk." One 
hundred pounds of wool waste, therefore, containing sixteen or 
seventeen per cent, of nitrogen, should be over thirty times as 
strong as one hundred pounds of fresh cow dung. 

As to " wool sweat" or " suint," or wool scourings, it is an 



86*3 THE AMERICAN MERINO. 

imperfect soap, consisting chiefly of potash, lime and magnesia 
united to a peculiar animal oil. It is remarkable that this soap 
of lime, insoluble in all other cases, is here soluble in water. 
Professor S. L. Dana states that the washings from wool annu- 
ally consumed in France are equal to the manuring of three 
hundred and seventy thousand acres of land. Yet this sub- 
stance must be applied judiciously ; if scattered freely on the 
ground in a liquid form it has been known to sheet over the soil 
with a crust impervious to air or water, and so remain for years 
except where comminuted by the plow. In the United States 
Agricultural Report for 1870 there is a suggestion that these 
scourings should be reduced by heat to ashes before they are 
applied to the soil. 

It is stated that in France a process has been discovered 
whereby a large amount of potash and valuable lubricatmg oil 
can be extracted from wool sweat, or yolk ; and that this prom- 
ises to give a very considerable value to a by-product which has 
heretofore been regarded in the United States as an almost total 
loss. 

Sundry Utensils.— Stock registers, ear-tabs, toe-shears, etc., 
can be had of the makers who advertise them, as may shep- 
herds' crooks. Any blacksmith can make a branding-iron 
(when this is wanted, though paint is better), of flat iron, five- 
eighths of an inch wide and one-quarter of an inch thick, bent 
into the required letter, with an iron handle eighteen inches 
long. Iron is better than wood, as it will permit the accumu- 
lating wool, grease and flesh to be burned off. 



INDEX 



Barns, Houses and Appurtenances 

House for Breeding Ewes 
Smith's 

Cisterns for Houses 

Cisterns, How to Build .... 

Doors and Gates in 

Dust Bath in 

Mr. Frink's 

Feed Racks.. 

Fodder Ricks.. 

Grouping of 

Group of Three .... 

Barn, a Gt^neral Purpose 

For a Small Flock. 

Double Hacks in . . . 

Single Racks for Lambs 

Table for Shearers 

Watering Troughs in 

Watering Troughs, Covered 

Wool Room in 

Burrs in Pastures 

Constitution in Sheep 

Crossing and Cross- Breeding 



165 

165 
174 
175 
171 
123 
195 
172 



Diseases of Sheep and Remedies. 

Acarus scabiei 301 

Actcea rubra 333 

Albuminiii'ia 352 

Alimentary Sy8tum,Diseases of ..328 

Anaemia 341 

Antiirax Fever .339 

Apoplexy. 345 

"Bane" 287 

Baneherry 332 

Bleeding Sheep 279 

Blind Staggers 294 

Blood Diseases 338 

Bloody Urine. . . 338 

Brain, Inflammation of 346 

"Braxy" .....3.34 

Buckeye 333 

Buckeye and Laurel, Symp- 
toms of Poisoning by 332 

" Buck-fly Grub " 2,36 

Bufl'alo Gnat 355 

Canker of the Foot 322 

Catarrh ,324 

Treatment of .325 

Cercaria 288 

Choking 3.35 

Clap 352 

Constipation ...328 

Cough 325 

General Remarks on 277 

Diuresis 800 

Dropsy 344 

Dysentery .337 

Enteritis 334 



Diseases of Sheep. 

Epilepsy 343 

Eyes, Sore 355 

Feet, Diseases of. 316 

Fluke 287 

Fluke, Eggs of 2S7 

Fl uke. Its Changes 289 

Foot and Mouth Disease 323 

Foot Rot. Origin of .317 

Treatment of 319 

Foot-bath for 320 

Treatins; Small Flocks 321 

What is it? 318 

Foreign Substances in ttie 

Stomach .. 3.35 

"Fouls" in Sheep's Feet 321 

Fractures 353 

Gad-fly, Grub or Larva of 298 

Gad fly of Sheep 298 

Garget 349 

Gill.. 294 

Gid Hydatid, History of 294 

Goitre 343 

Prevention of 343 

Graul 351 

Grub in the Head 298 

Preventive of 300 

Symptoms 299 

Treatment 299 

Head, Parasites in 345 

Haemorrhoids 337 

Hoove 201 

Hoven 331 

Hydrocephalus 344 

Indian Pea .332 

Inflammation of Bowels 334 

Influenza 325 

Insect Plagues 355 

Inrerdigilal Canal, Inflanuna- 

tion of 322 

Laurel ,332 

Liver, Congestion of .336 

Inflammation of 336 

Rot 2S7 

Rot, Prevention of. 291 

Linnceus truncatulus 288 

Lock-jaw .,347 

"Loco Weeds" 332 

Louse, Sheep... 314 

•• Luml)riz" 297 

Lung Parasites 280 

Maggots 314 

Manimit.is 349 

Miscellaneous 353 

"Murrain" 3.39 

" Needle-grass " 3.55 

Nervous System of. 345 

ovis 293 



(363) 



364 



II^DEX. 



Diseases of Sheep. 

Ozcena 325 

Palsy ...347 

Paperskin 277 

Copperas for 284 

Chlorine lor 2b5 

Hiiih Feeding for .285 

Pumpkin Seeds for 285 

Sy mploms of 282 

Paraly-is 346 

Paraplegia 346 

Parasites 287 

Parasites id the Head 345 

Parasitic Diseases 287 

Parasitic Paralysis 341 

"Pelt Eot" 340 

"Pining" 341 

Plethora 340 

Pleurisy 427 

Prevention of 333 

Pneumonia 326 

Poisoninfj 332 

Purj^atives 279 

Media 288 

•• Eed Water " 344 

Eespiratory System. Diseases of.324 

Retention of Fcetiis 349 

Keiention of Urine 350 

Rheumatism, Congenital 338 

Rot, Symptoms o( 29ii 

St. Johnswort 332 

Scab, Destroying Inteclion 311 

Dipping Appliances 304 

Dipsfor 303 

Fences to Prevent 310 

"Handling" for 302 

Insect 301 

In the East 312 

Patent Dips for 302 

Prevention ot 311 

Symptoms of 301 

Scald-foot 321 

Screw-worms 315 

Scrofula 342 

Snail for Fluke 288 

Snake Bites 316 

Staj,'^gers, Operation for 296 

Prevention of 297 

Stipa sijartea 355 

Strongylus JUana 280 

Stone in tlie Bladder 351 

"Stretches." 328 

Sore Eves 353 

Sore Mouth 334 

Sporadic Pleuro-pneumonia — 326 

Treatment 327 

Sporocyst 288 

Tape-Worms 291 

Symptoms and Cure 292 

Tarweed 332 

Tetanus....: 347 

Thomas, Prof. A. P., on Fluke. 287 

Ticks and Lice 312 

Eradicatinii; 313 

Prevention of 314 

Tympanitis 331 

Urethra, Stoppage of 351 

Urinary and Reproductive Or- 
gans of 348 



Diseases of Sheep. 

Uterus, Eversion of 350 

Veuetable Foes,. 33'i 

" Weather Gniss " 355 

Worms, Other Intestinal 293 

Wounds 353 

Dipping, Boilers and Vats for 309 

Draining Yards 309 

HowOtieu 310 

Pena for the Flock 305 

'•Spotting." 309 

Swimming Vats and Pens 307 

The Process 306 

Thorouglmess Necessary 306 

The Swimming Metliod 307 

The Vat...... ^ 309 

When to Dip. 310 

Dogs, Ravages of... 356 

Trap for 357 

A Guard Against 357 

Training Suepherds' 358 



Acorns, Injurious to 161 

Aire as Breeders 47-163 

Breeding, Selecting 155 

Breeding, Points in which the 

Ewe Prevails 156 

Condition at Coupling 157 

Condition, Maintaining in 139 

Defective Teats in 100 

Discarding, Causes for 157 

Drafting. Best Time for 156 

Ergot, Effects of 99 

Exercise of, Necessity for 159 

Spurred Rye, Effects of 99 

Feed for 95 

Feeding for Milk 159 

Feeding Suckling 160 

Gestation. Period of 157 

Getti ng Cast 164 

Green Rye for 99 

Lambing, Time of 158 

Missing 163 

Recurrence of 167 

Running Farrow 157 

" Teasers "for 100 

Feeding and Fodders. 

Alfalfa 66 

Analytical Tables, Value of.... 62 

Feeds, Correlation of 63 

Corn. Sheep in 138 

Corn-fodder for Sheep 204 

Feed. 59 

Feeding, Experiments in 64 

Crout's. W.D 73 

Kirby^s, W. G 73 

Sanborn's, J. W 73 

Watkin's, O. M 73 

Feeding, Merino Taste from... 75 

" Sheepy Flavor " from 75 

Fodders for Sheep 203-286 

Fodder-corn for Sheep 205 

Feed, a Perfect 60 

Feeds, Mixed 63 

Feeds, Grain 61 

Mineral Matters Needed in — 66 
Prairie Hay 66 



INDEX. 



365 



Feedinir and Fodders. 

Red Clover for Sheep 203 

Roots for Sheep 62 

Sheep, Timothy for 206 

Sheep, a Variety of Feed for... 199 

Feeding for Mutton 189 

SECBS. 

Burs, ThiBtles, etc., in 39 

Clouded 38-188 

How to Fold 118 

"Fribs" in 39 

Mold in... 38 

"Old Sue'B" 156 

Sorts in £0 

Strings in 38 

Stuffing of 38 

Unevenness in 39 

FoBAGE Plants, not Grasses. 

"Alfileria^' 71 

" Bur-clover " 71 

Erodium cicutarium 71 

Eurotia lanata 71 

" Greiisewood " 71 

Medicago denticulata 71 

Abione canescens 71 

Phaca Nuttalii 332 

"Pin-clover" 71 

Prosopis julifiora 71 

Furshia tridentata 71 

"Sage" 71 

Sarcobatus vermiculaUis 71 

Trffolium Andersunii. 71 

"White Sa-e" 71 

"Winter Fat" 71 

Frank, J. H., Methods ('f Feeding. 194 

Full Blood and Thoroughbred 44 

Grades 45 

Gbassbs, Botanical names in Italics. 

A grostis vulgaris 70-208 

Aira ccespitosa 70 

A tropin temiifolia 70 

Bermuda grass 221 

"Blue Joint" 70 

Boiiteluna hirsuta 69 

Bouteloua oligost^chya 69 

Buclilo ■ daciyloides 69 

" Buftalo Grass " 69 

" Bunch-grass " 69 

"Broom-grass" 69 

Calamagrostis Canadensis 70 

JDactylis glomerata 207 

Eiiocom'a c/spidata 70 

" False Red-top " 69 

Festuca occidentalis 70 

Festuca ovina 70 

Festuca scabrella 70 

" Foxtail-grass " 70 

"Gallotte" 70 

"Galleta" 70 

" Grama-graas " 69 

" June " 68-208 

Hilaria riqida 70 

Bordeum murinum , 70 

" Hungarian Grass " 207 



Grasses. 

Grass, Meadow 208 

Manisuris granularis 220 

Mesquite grass. ... ... 71 

Muhienbergia gracillima ....... 71 

Munroa squanosa b9 

laidcum Germaidcum. 207 

Poa oLpina 69 

Poa annua 69 

Poa compressa 69 

Poa pralensis r»9 

Poa serotina 69 

Poa teindfo ia 69 

Red-top lor Sheep 70-208 

" Sage-grass " 69 

"Sand grass" . 70 

Sheep's Fescue 70 

" Siniit-i^rass ". 220 

Sporobolus airoides 70 

" Squirrel-LTass "' 70 

Sltpa comala 69 

IStipa occidentalis 69 

" ViningMfsq'iite " 69 

"Wire Grass'' 69 

Hoofs, Clipping 105 

Hook, Making a 57 

Lambing. 

Artificial Nipples 92 

Assisted Labor in 88 

Chilled Lambs 90 

Corps', Geo S, System 91 

Creei)s, fur Lambs 92 

In the Field 9T 

Fixtures and Preparations for . 57 

Foster Mothers 89 

General Management in 88 

Milk, Excess of 95 

Panels for Pens at 87 

Os Uteri, Schirrous 88 

Sheep Hook, its Uses m 85 

Lambs. 

Acorns for 140 

Castration of 107 

Cholera in 93 

Cholera Preventives 94 

Cossets 91 

Cows" Milk, Feeding with 93 

Dockin- 107 

Fall Feed for 140 

Fall and Winter 163 

Fouling of 93 

Goitre in 98 

In May 159 

Pumpkins for 141 

Re-dockiUL' of 103 

Sti.fi'Neckin..... - 101 

Tagging 104-135 

Tail, Burning off of 103 

Turnips for. 141 

Twins 101 

Weaning 134 

Winter Care of 179 

Letter of Presentation 8 

Letter of Request , 7 

Maggots , 131 



366 



IKDEX. 



Merinos. 

Adams', Seth, Importation 11 

Aguirre 14 

American Merinos 18 

Atwood's, Stephen, Pnrcliase.. 15 

"Basconi." Fleece of 20 

Beall's, Victor, Delaine Merinos 21 

Blaclc-top Merinos 26 

'•Buckeye,'" Heaviest Fleece.. 20 
Correlation of Carcass and 

Fleece 22 

Dana's. George, Flock 20 

Delaine Merinos 25 

Embargo, Effect of 15 

English and Merino Cross 53 

*' Esciirials" 14 

Etymology of Merino 11 

Fearino. Panl, and B. P. Gil- 
man's Flock .. .. ..... 20 

Fleece, Weight of 19 

Feeders. Merinos as 159 

French Merinos.. 279 

Gnadalonpe Merinos 14 

Davis', Col. Humphrey, Impor- 
tation 11 

Hammond. Edwin, His Flock. 17 

Hammond's Merinos 18 

"Infantados" 14 

Jarvis', Wm., Importation 15 

K'lly, Daniel. His Flock 21 

"Little Wrinkly" IT 

"LongWool" 18 

Mather, Increase, His Flock... 20 

Meiino Mutton 189 

National Improved Saxony — 36 

Negretiis 14 

"Old Black" IT 

"Old Greasy" 11 

"Old Wrinkly" 17 

"Patrick Henry," Fleece of... 20 

Paulars 14 

Putnam's, Israel, Flock 20 

§uinn. J. B., His Merinos 17 
ace Type 24 

"Rambouillet" Merinos 30 

Eich's, Charles, Flock 16 

Southdown and Merino Cross.. 52 

Stone's, Col. John, Flocks 20 

Sweepstakes 17 

W^ashington Co., Pa., Flocks... 21 

Wrinkles 56 

"Wooster" 17 

"Young Matchless" 17 

Mutton, A Leg of 129 

Mutton, Daniel Webster on 130 

Mutton. Brasy flavor in 130 

Mutton Merino 72 

Orchards. Sheep in 138 

Prepotency 50 

Eams. 

Blinders for 150 

" Capt. Jack " 149 

Constitution of 342 

Feeding of 151 

Fighting, to Prevent in 148 

Management of Cross 152 

Management of Service 151 



Rams. 

" The Earn More than Half tlie 

Flock" 45 

One or More ..153 

'■Patrick Henry" 146 

Points of a Good 144 

Selection an; 1 Care of 142 

" Silver Horn " 142 

Summer Management of 147 

Tarring 148 

Tyinga 150 

Winter Treatment of 153 

Shearing Cards 176 

Sheep. 

Blacking the Fleece of 154 

Blanketing 155 

" Breeder's Fancy "in 49 

Breeding Flock 155 

Choose with Fewest Defects. . . 49 

Cleanliness, Importance of 99 

Con_;ition,MaintaininganEvenl39 

Condition, Good 123 

Corn for 138 

Corn Fodder for 184 

Depasturing Wheat with 201 

Dust bath for 133 

Feeder, Methods of a Noted. . .194 
Feeding, Manner and Material.192 

Feed Troughs for 180 

From Grass to Hay 138 

From Hay to Grass 2U0 

Gad-flyon 133 

Good Growth .123 

Grain Feed at Night 180 

Graitu, Necessity for 188 

Housing, the Gain of 182 

In-Breeding 55 

Losing Wool 157 

Maggots in 131 

Marking 117 

Manure, Making and Saving. 185 

Mutton, Feeding for 189 

Mutton, When to Feed for 191 

Opposites to be Mated 144 

Orchards, In 1:38 

Ovrr-feediiig of 137 

Pampering and over-feeding. . .136 

Pasture in the West 67 

Pedigree 44 

Pelts, Tanning of 356 

Quiet, Importance of 199 

Sales. Mutton, of at Chicago..., 24 

Salting of 133 

Scavengers. As 125 

Season. At the End of 141 

Sheai ing 115 

Shearing. Sorting at 117 

Shearing. Speed m 122 

Shelters. Temporary 181 

Snow Eaters 188 

Soiling 139 

Sorting for Winter 181 

Stables, Cleaning out 185 

" Stubbling," Blacking, etc. . . 154 
Summer Housing and Feeding.LSS 

Summer Management of 125 

Tickson 131 



INDEX. 



367 



Shoep. 

To an Acre. Nutnlier 127 

Water for, "Necessity of 128 

Washing, A. F. Bieckenridge's 

Kecord 108 

Wasiiing, Loss from 109 

Washing, Modi^s of 113 

Washing, Policy of 105 

Washing, Shearing without ...1^.2 

Winter Management of 1T7 

Working off the Culls 12S 

Yarding in Winter 177 

. Sheep Husbanduy, Systems of : 

Arizona, In 33J^ 

General Management 2:33 

Atlantic Slope, On 2(19 

AlliB' J. F. C, Management..,. 210 

Early Lambs 209 

Manure. Value of . . .210 

Roots, Feeding of 211 

California, In 284 

Alfalfa, Sheep on 243 

Breeding Flocks and Ewes. ...238 
Characteristics of California 

Sheep 231 

"Dodge Gate," The, in 245 

Flock, A Sample 247 

General Management.. ,. 237 

Hay in California 248 

History of, in 234 

Herder, His Life in ...248 

Losses of Sl'eep in 247 

Mutton Slieep in California 240 

Pastures, Effect of Siieep on ...241 

Vineyards, Sheep in 245 

Shearinti in.. 238 

Sim-ra Nevada. Sheep in 247 

Wheat Parms,Effect of Sheep 01.241 

Wool, Grades of 23!) 

PrepM'ing for Shipping.. 246 

. Produceof 234 

Cololrado, [n 271 

" Alfalfa Mutton "in 272 

Bands, Division of Sheep into. 272 

Corrals in 273 

Grasses in... 277 

Increase from Irrigation 272 

Snow Stormsin 273 

Summer Management 272 

Dakota, In 263 

Alfalfa in 263 

Alkali in 263 

General Management in 263 

Mi Ik-weed, Poisonous ^4 

Ranges, Fenced, and Open 264 

Idaho, In , 258 

Flocks, Size of... ..258 

Grasses and Herbage 258 

Hay Cut from " Claims " 258 

Lambing 258 

Losses, A/innal 258 

Merino Blood Predominant. . . 258 

Mutton, Small Demand 259 

Snows, Early and Late 258 

Wheat inDough,Cut for Wiuter.258 



Kansas, In, See Prairie Regions.. ..214 

Montana, In 259 

Bunch Grasses 260 

"Chinook," The, in 259 

Diseases in. 260 

Grasses in ,259 

Winter, Hay for 262 

Winter, Shelter in.. 262 

Wool, Clip or 1885 259 

Wool, Prepaii ng for Market . . . 260 

Nebraskri, In 264 

"Blizzards" in 267 

Elements, Dani^ers from the.. .267 

Feeding in Winter 2()8 

Scab in 269 

Water in Winter 269 

Wind-Breaks 257 

Nevada, In 249 

Drives of Sheep, Their Effects. .249 

Laml»ing in 250 

Miittonin 256 

Scab iu 251 

Siiearing in 250 

Systems of Management 249 

Wool in 250 

New Mexico, In 

Breeding for Hardiness in 231 

Losses of Slieep in 231 

Pastura<re and Forage 231 

Siieep Drives .233 

Taken on Shares 233 

Oregon, Iu 251 

Alkali, Effects of, on Fibre 253 

Beasts of Prey ill 255 

Conditions and Modes in 252 

"Chinook," Sheep iu the 257 

*' Dead Tip "in 2.54 

Long-wooled Sheep in 2.o2 

Losses, Average Annual 250 

Merinos, Introduction of .251 

Prairie Regions, In the 214 

Bad Management in 214 

" Buck Rsike," Use of ...217 

FootRotin 216 

Geneml Management in 217 

"Go Devil," Use of... 217 

Grasses, Beard or Broom 216 

Grasses, Natural. , 216 

"MuttonCorn" 216 

Prairie Hay 216 

Sorghum Fodder 216 

" Stalk Pastures" 215 

Wool in 215 

Wool, Prices of 215 

Southern States, In 218 

Bermuda Grass in 221 

Cotton Seed for Sheep 220 

Department of Agriculture, Its 

Queries 221 

Department of Agriculture, Re- 
turns Tabulated 233 

"Guinea Grass" in 226 

"Japan Clover" in 219 

"Japan Glover," Dr.Phares on. 221 

Lam bi ng in 226 

Lespedeza striata 219 

Liatris odoratimma 220 



368 



IKDEX. 



Soutliern States, In. 

Manisuris granularis 221 

" Smut-^niss " 220 

Sorghum Halepense 220 

Peters'. Ricliard, Experience... 210 
"Vaniilii Plant" for Sheep.. ..220 
Watts'. Col. J. W., Experience. 2] 8 
Wool, Washing of 220 

f^ubniontane Ref^ion, In the 212 

Extent of 212 

Fiocks.The size of 213 

Feedin 214 

Wool Rather than Mutton. . . .207 

Texas, In 222 

''Chourros," The 223 

"Corral," The 224 

Fencin<2: in 224 

Flock, A Sample 230 

General Mana;;ement in .224 

Herdini? in 224 

Kendall, G. W., His Farm 222 

Lambinji in 225 

•' Muttons." Feeding^ of 229 

Pasturage in 226 

Range in 223 

Shearing 223 

Shearing, Semi-annnal 235 

Sheep, Texan.... 227 

Winter Ranges. 225 

Utah, In 2T4 

Clip in 1879 274 

Losses, Sources of 275 

Losses in Winter of 1879-80. .. .274 

Merinos, Introduction of 274 

Poisonous Plants in 275 

Washiuoton Territory, In 257 

"Chinook," Sheep in the 2.57 

Cattlemen ts. Sheep ..257 

Grasses in 257 

Lambing, Time for 257 

Scabin.'.. 257 

Shearinir in. 25T 

Winter Management in 257 

Wyoming, In 269 

Government Report on 270 

Laramie Citv a Wool Center.. .270 

Dipping Tanks at 270 

Shearing Pens at 270 

Tenser ' ^63 

Teeks ..^.. »....131 



Teeth Indicating Age 129 

Variation 51 

Wethers, Tagging 105 

Wheat, Affects of Depasturing 203 

WooTi. 

An.nlvsis of 361 

And Yolk, Correlation of 1J6 

Australian 83 

Author's Experience in 84 

Black-Top and Clots in 36 

Brashy 123 

i California Grades 239 

' Cotting of 35 

"The Crimp" 23 

Dead Tip in 22 

Fiber. Effect of Climate on ... . 33 
Effect of High Feeding on. . . 33 

Length and Density of 35 

Structure of 27 

Grades in 31-123 

Whence the Grades Come.. . . 32 

Gray Shoulder Clot in 36 

How Planted 29 

"Jar" in 37 

Jointed 37 

"Kemp " in :^7 

Length and Diameter of 28 

Manufactures 82 

Prairie 215 

Montana, Packing in 2G1 

Preparation for Shipping 246 

Press 119 

Prices in Boston lor Seventeen 

Years 42 

Price Compared with Cotton... 43 

Production of 41 

Product of the United States... 80 

Quarier Blood 124 

Room in Sheep House 176 

Round and Flat 28 

Sacking and Transportation. ..124 

Sectional Prices of 40 

Scourings, As Fertilizers 361 

Shearing, Cards for 1 76 

Strength of Dry and Yolky.... 85 
Sunman's, T. W. W. Flock.. .. 83 

Waste 361 

Where to Sell 122 

Wool. Storing 121 

Yolk and Wool, Correlation of 14(i 



Alphabetical Catalogue 

0. Judd Co., David W. Judd, Pres't, 

^^ \ ■ .fe PUBLISHERS AND IMPORTERS OF s) ^-^. \ ,j 

All Works pertaining to Rural Life. 



0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 




Agriculture, Horticulture, Etc. 



FARiVI ANI> «AKI>Ei^. 



Allen R. L. and L. F. New American Farm Book $ 

American Farmer's Hand Book 

Asparagus Culture. Fiex.cioth 

Bamford, C. E. SilkCulture. Paper 

Barry P. The Fruit Garden. New and Revised Edition 

Bomrner. Method of Making Manures 

Brackett. Farm Talk. Paper 50c. Cloth 

Brill. Faira-Gardening and Seed-Growing 

Cauliflowers 

Broom-Corn and Brooms. Paper 

Curtis on Wheat Culture. Paper 

Emerson and Flint. Manual of Agriculture 

Farm Conveniences 

Farming for Boys 

Farming for Profit 

FitZ. Sweet Potato Culture. New and Enlarged Edition. Cloth 

Flax Culture. Paper 

French. Farm Drainage , 

Fuller, A. S. Practical Forestry 



Gregory. 



On Cabbages 

On Carrots, Mangold Wurtzels, etc. 

On Fertilizers 

On Onion Raising.... 

On Squashes 



2.50 

2.50 

.50 

.30 

2.00 

.25 

.75 

1.00 

.20 

.50 

.50 

1.50 

1.50 

1.25 

3.75 

.(iO 

.30 

1.50 

1.50 

.30 

.30 

.40 



6. oXJBD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 3 

Harlan. Farrain,?witli Green Manures 1.00 

Harris, insects injurious to Vegetation. Plain $4. CoFd Engravings. 6.50 

Harris, Joseph. Gaideninir for Young and Old 1.25 

Tallvs on Manure?. New and Revised Edition. ., 1.75 

Henderson, Peter. Gardening for Pleasure 1.50 

-— Gulden ing lor Profit. New and Enlarged Edition. 2.00 

Garden and Farm Topics 1.50 

Henderson & Crozier. How t lie Farm Pays 2.50 

Hop Culture. New and Revised Edition. Paper .30 

Illustrated Dictionary Of Gardening. Vols, i & ii, eacii 5.oo 

Johnston. Ajiricnlmral Olienilstry 1,75 

Johnson, M. W. Howto Plant. Paper ... .. .50 

Johnson, Prof. S. W. How Crops Feed 2.00 

How Crt)i)s Grow 2.00 

Jones, B. W. Tiie Peanut Plant. Paper 50 

Lawn Planting. Paper , 25 

Leiand. F.um Homes, In-Doors. and Out-Doors. New Edition 1.50 

Long, Elias A. Omr.menlal' Gardening for Americans 2.00 

Morton. J'ar.ner's calendar 5.00 

Nichols. Chemistry of Farm and Sea 1.25 

Norton. Elements of Scientific Auricnlture 75 

Oemler. Tmclv-Farmingat the Sontli 1.50 

Onions. How to Raise them Profitably 20 

Our Farm of Four Acres. Pipi ..so 

Pabor, E. Colorado as an Agricultural S;ate 1.50 

Pedder. Land Measurer fur Fanners. Cloth 60 

Plant Life on the Farm i.oo 

Quinn. Money in the Garden 1.50 

Riley. Potato Pests. Paper... 50 

Robinson. Facts for Farmers 5.00 

Roe. Play and Profit, in my Garden 150 

Roosevelt. Five Acres Too Mnch 1.50 

Silos and Ensjlage* New and Enlarged Ediiion 50 

Starr. Farm Echoes 1.00 

Stewart, irrigation for the Farm, Garden and Orchard 1.50 

Ten Acres Enough i.oo 

The Soil of the Farm i 00 

Thomas. Farm Implements and Machinery 1.50 

Tim Bunker Papers; or, Yankee Farming iso 

Tobacco Culture. Paper 25 

Treat, Injarious insects of the Farm and Garden ,. 2.00 

VilleS. School of Chemical Manures 1.25 

High Farming without Manures 25 

Artificial Mannres 6.00 

Waring. Book of the Farm , 2.00 

Draining for Profit and Health 1.50 

. Elements c Agriculture 1.00 

• Farmers' Vacation 3.00 

Sanitary Drainage of Houses and Towns 2.0i 

Sanitary Condition in City and Country Dwellings 50 

Warington. Chemistry of the Farm 1.00 

Whit?. Qar4§BiP^f9rtlieSottte 2.00 



0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 



FRUITS, FI.OWKRS, ETC. 

American Rose Cuiturist 30 

American Weeds and Useful Plants ••-. i "5 

Bailey. Field Notes on Apple Culture 'io 

BoUSSingault. Rm-ai Economy 1.60 

Chorlton. Gmpe-Grower's Guide 75 

Collier Peter. SorLrlmin, its culture imd Mannractnre 3.U() 

Common Sea Weeds. Boards 50 

Downing. Fruit? and. Fniit Trees of America. New Edition 5.00 

Rural Essays 3.00 

Elliott. Hand Book lor Fruit-Growers. Paper 60c. Cloih 1.00 

Every Woman her own Flower Gardener lOO 

Fern Book for Everybody 50 

Fuller, A. S. Grape Culturist 1.50 

Illustrated Strawberry Ciiltui ist 

Small Fruit Culturist. New Edition 1.50 

Fulton. Peach Culture. New and Revised Edition 1.50 

Heinrich. Window Flower Garden 

Henderson, Peter. Hand Book or Plants 3.00 

Practical Floriculture 1.50 

Hibberd, Shirley. The Amateur's Flower Garden 2.50 

Tiie Amfiteur's Greenhouse and Conservatory. 2 50 

• The Amateur's Rose Book 2 50 

HoopeS. Book of Evergreens 3.00 

Husmann Prof.Geo. American Grape giowino- and VV^ne Making 1.50 

Johnson. Winter Greeneries at Home 1.00 

fyioore, Rev. J. W. Oran,-e Culture 1.00 

i^y Vineyard at Lakeview •• ^ ^^ 

Origin of Cultivated Plants i '^5 

Parsons. On the Rose 1.50 

Ouinn. Pear Culture for Profit. New and Revised Edition 1.00 

Rivers. Miniature Fruit Garden 1-00 

Rixford. Wine Press and cellar 1.50 

Robinson. Perns in tlieir Homes and Ours 1.50 

Roe. Success with Small Fruits 2.50 

Saunders, insects injurious to Fruits 3 00 

Sheehan, JaS. YourPlants. Paper .40 

Stewart. S<)rgh':.m and its Products l.oO 

Thomas. American Fruit Cidturist 2.00 

Vick. Flower and Vegetable Garden. Cloth 1.00 

Warder. Hedges and Evergreens 1-50 

Webb, JaS. Cape Cod Cranberries. Paper 40 

White. Cranberry CaUure 1-25 

WilliamSi B. S. Orcliid Grower's Manual... ... 6.50 

Wood Samuel. Modern window Gardening 1.25 



0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 




Cattle, Dogs, Horses, Sheep, Swine, Poultry, Etc. 



CATTLE, SHEEP, ANl> SlVIiVE. 

Allen, L. F. American Cattle. Now and Revised Edition 2,50 

Armatage, Prof. Ceo. Every Man His Own Cattle Doctor. 8vo.. 7.50 

ArmSby. Manual of Caltle Feeding 2.50 

Cattle. Tiie Varieties, Breeding, and Management 75 

Coburn, F. D. Swine Husbandry. New and Revised Edition 1.75 

Clok. Diseases of Siieep 1.25 

Dadd, Prof. Ceo. H. American Cattle Doctor. 12mo 1.50 

American Cattle Doctor. 8vo Clotii 2.50 

Fleming. Veterinary Obstetrics 6.00 

Cuenon. OnMilcliCows 1.00 

Harris, Joseph. OntbePig 1 50 

Jennings. OnCattle and tlieir Diseases 1.25 

On Sbcep, Swine, and Poultry, 1.25 

Jersey, Aiderney, and Cuernsey Cow i.50 

Keeping One Cow i.oo 

Macdonald. Food from the Far West 1.50 

McCI U re. Diseases of the American Horse, Cattle, and Sheep 2.00 

McCombie, Wm. Cattle and Cattle Breeders . 1.50 

Martin, R. B. Hog-Raising and Pork-Making 40 

Miles, stock Breeding.... 1.50 

Powers, Stephen. The American Merino for Wool and Mntton. 

A practical and valuable work. 1.75 

Quincy, Hon. Josiah. On Soiling cattle 1.25 

Randall. Fine WooI Sheep Husbandry 1.00 

Practical Shcplierd ' 2.00 

Sheep Husbandry. ].50 



0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGTJE. 



Reasor. OntheHos: 1.50 

Sidney. OoMiePi-,' 50 

Shepherd, f^ajor W, Pmirie Experience in Handling Cntlle... 1.00 
Stewart, Henry. ShcphercFs Manual. New and Enlarged Editioi!.. 1.5C 

Stewart, E. W. Feeding Animals 2,00 

The Sheep, its V;:.rieties and Management. Boards 75 

Youatt and Martin. OntheHog i.oo 

YOUatt. OnSkeep 1.00 




I>OOS, ETC. 

Burgess. American Kennel and Sporting Field. 8vo 3.00 

Dog-The Varieties and Management 50 

Dogs of Great Britain, America, and Other Coun- 
tries, Compiled IVoni Stonelienge and other Standard Writers. The 

most Complete Work ever Published on the Dog. 12mo 2.00 

Forester, F, The Dog, by Dinks, Mayliew, and Hutchinson. Svo . . . 3.00 

Floyd, Wm. Hints on Dog Breaking. 12mo 50 

HallOCl<, C. Dog Fanciers' Directory and Medical Gnide. 18ino 25 

Hammond, S. DogTralning. 12mo 1.00 

Hilt, «Id W. Management, and Diseases of the Dog. 12mo 2.00 

Hooper, J. J. Dog and Gun. Paper ,30 

Hutchinson, G. N. Dog Breaking. Svo 3.00 

IdStOne. TlieDog. illustrated. 12ino 1.25 

Laverack, E. The Setter. 4to 3.00 

Mayhew, E. Dogs; Tlieir Management. 16nio 75 

Points for Judging Different Varieties of Dogs. 

Paper 50 

Richardson. Dogs; Their Origin and Varieties. Pap r 30c. Cloth .(!0 

Shaw, T. VerO. lUnstrated Bookof tlie Dog. 4to 8.00 

Stables, Gordon. Onr Friend the Dog. Svo 3.00 

Practical Kennel Guide 1.50 

Ladies' Dogs as Companions 2.00 

Stonehenge. The Dog m Healtli and Disease. 8vo.. 3.00 

Dogs of tiie British Islands. Svo , 6.00 

■ Tiie Greyhound 5.50 

Youatt. On the Dog. Svo 2.50 



O. JUDD CO/S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 




7.00 



HORfl^ES, RII>irVO, ETC. 

Anderson, E. L. Modem Hoi-semanslnp. 8vo 

The Gallop. 4t(). Paper 1.00 

Armatage, Geo. Every Man His Own Horse Doctor, logellier wiih 

Blaine's Velerinary Art. 8vo. i morocco 7_g0 

Armatage. Ceo. Horse Ownerand Stableman's Companion. 12mo 1.50 
Battersby, Col. J. C. The Bridie Bits. A valuable little work 

on horsemanship. Fully illustrated. 12mo 1.00 

Baucher, F. New Method of Horsemanship. 12ino 1.00 

Bruce. Stud-Book. 4vols 35.00 

Chawner, R. Diseases of the Horse and How to Treat Tiiem. ISmo 1.-5 

Chester, complete Trotting and Pacing Record 10.00 

Daddy G. H. American Relonned Horse Book. 8vo 2..50 

Modern Horse Doctor. 12mo 1.50 

Day, W. The Race Horse in 1'raini no-. 8vo (5.25 

Du Hays, C. Pcrclieron Horse. New and Revised Edition. 12mo.. 1.00 

Durant. Horseback Riding 1..25 

Famous Horses of America, cioth, 4to 1.50 

Cleason, O. R. How to Handle and Educate Vicious Horses 1.00 

Going, J. A. Veterinary Dictiou'iry. 12mo 2.0;) 

Herbert, H. W. Hints to Horse Keepers. 12mo I.7.5 

Helm, H. T. American Roadsters and Trotting Horses. 8vo 5.00 

Horse, The; lis Varieties and Management. Boards 75 

Howden, P. How to Buy and Sell the Horse. 12im) 1.00 

Jennings, R. Horse Training Made Eisy. lOno 1.25 

The Horse and His Diseases. 12mo 1.25 

Law, J. Veterinary Adviser. Svo 3.OO 

Liautard. Chart of Age of Domestic Auimnls 50 

Animal Castration. 12mo 2.00 

Manning. The illustrated stock Doctor 5.OO 

Mayhew, E. illustrated Horse Management. 8vo 3.OO 

" Horse Doctor. 8vo 3.OO 

McClure, R. Diseases of American Ilorses. 12mo 2.00 

American Gentleman's Stable Guide. l2mo 1.00 

Miles, W. On tiie Horse's Foot. 12:no... 

Rarey. Horse Tamer and Farrier. 16ino 50 



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Riding and Driving 20 

Riley, H. On the MuIc 12mo 1.50 

Russell. Scientific Horse-Shoeing 1.00 

Saddle Horse, The. Complete Gnicle to Riding and Training 1.00 

Saunders. Horse Bieediug. 12nio 2.00 

Stewart, R. American Farmer's Horse Book. 8vo 3.00 

StOnehenge. Every Horsu Owner's cyclopaedia. 8vo; 3.75 

Oil the Horse in the Stable and the Field. English 

Edition. 8vo 3.50 

Oil the Horse iu tlie Stable and the Field. American 

Edition. 12mo 2.00 

Teller. Diseases of Live Stock. Cioth, 2.50; Slieep 3.00 

Wallace. American Stnd -Book. Per vol 10.00 

Williams. Veterinary Medicine 5.00 

Yeierinary Surgery T.50 

Woodruff. The Trotting Horse in America, l-^mo 2.50 

Woods, Rev. J. C. Horse and Man 2.50 

Youatt & SkiJiner. Tlie Horse. 8vo 1.75 

Youatt & Spooner. " " ismo 1.50 



Burnham. New Poultry Book 1.50 

Cook Prof. A. J. Bee-Keeper's Guide or Manual of the Apiary 1.25 

Cooper, Dr. J. W. Gnnm Fowls 5.00 

Corbett. Poulny Yard and Market. Paper 50 

Felch, I. K. Poultry Culture 1.50 

HalSted. Artificial incubation and Incubators. Paper 75 

Johnson, G. M. S. Practical Poultry Keeper. Paper .50 

King. Bee-Keeper's Text Book 1.00 

Lan^'Stroth. On the Honey and Hive Bee 2.00 

Poultry. Breeding, Rearing, Feeding etc. Boards 50 

Profits in Poultry and their Profitable Manage- 
ment. Most complete Work extant 1.00 

Quinby. Mysteries of Bee-Keeping Explained (Edited bvL. 0. Root^, 1.50 

Renwick. Thermostatic incubator. Paper 36c. Clorh 56 

Root, A. I. A, B. C, ofBL-e-Culture 1.25 

Standard Excellence in Poultry loo 

Stoddard. AnEgu-Farm. Revised and Enlarged 50 

Wright. Illustrated Book of Poultry 8.00 

Practical Poultry-Keeper 2.00 

Practical Pigeon Keeper 1.50 



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Our Sportsman's Books 



AI\OI.II^e, FlSHl.^<ii, ETC. 



BurgeSSy J. T. Practical Guide to Bottom Fishing-, Trolling, 

ypinuinu, Fly, and Sea Fishiug. 8vo 50 

Fish Hatching and Fish Catching. By rtooseveit and 

Green. 12mo 1.50 

Forester, F. Fish and Fishing. New Edition. 8vo. 2.50 

Fishing Willi Hook and Line. Paper 25 

Fysshe and Fysshynge^ from iheBokeof st. Aibans i.oo 

Hamilton, M. D. Fly Fishing. 12mo 1.75 

Harris. The Sciemiilc An^lcr— Foster 1.50 

Henshall, J. A. A B"ok of the Black Bass. 8vo 3.00 

Keene, J. H. Fly-Flshing and Fly-Making. l-2mo. Just Published.. 1.50 

Practical Fisherman. 12mo 4.00 

King; J. L. Tioiitin'4- on the Brule River. 12mo 1.50 

NorriSy T. American Fish Culture. l2mo 1.75 

American Angler's Book. 8vo 5.50 

OrviSy Charles F. Fishing with the Fly. Crown 8vo 2.50 

Penneli, H. C. Bottom; or, Float Fishing. Boards 50 

Fly-Fishing and VVorm-Fi^liing. Boards 50 

Trolling for Pike, Salmon, and Trout. Boards 50 

Prime. I go a Fishing 2.50 

Random Casts '^om an Angler's Note Book 50 

Roosevelt, R. B. Game Fish of the Northern Slates and British 

Provinces. 12mo 2.00 

— — Superior Fishing; or, the Striped Bass, Trout, 
Black Bass, and Blue Fish of the Northern 
States. 12mo 2.00 



10 O. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 

Roosevelt <& Green. Fisli Hatclun.:? and Fish Catching 1.50 

Slack, J. H. Practical Trout Culture. 12ruo 1.00 

Scotty G. C. Fishing m American Waters. 8vo 2.50 

Walton & Cotton, complete Angler. Svo 5.00 

" " Bohn 2.00 

" " Chandos 1.50 

" " 12mo 80 



BOATII^G, CANOEII^« SJLIL.IIVO, ETC. 

Canoeing in Kanuckia. I'^mo 75 

Fellows, H. P. Boatini: Trips on New England Rivers. 12mo 1.25 

Frazar, D. Pracilcal Boat Sailing. l6mo 1.00 

Henshail, J. A. Camping and Cruisin„- in Florida. 12mo 1.50 

Kemp, Dixon. Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing (the Standard 

Auiliority). Royal Svo. Illustrated 10.00 

Kemp, Dixon. Yacht Designing. Folio 25.00 

Kunhardt, D. T. Small Yachts. 4t<., 14>^ X 12^ 7.00 

PresCOtt, C. E. The Sailing Boat. Ibmo.. 50 

Steele, T. S. Canoe and Camera. 12mo 1.50 

Swimming. Routkdge 20 



FIEEO SPORTS AWO I^ATIJRAI. HISTORT. 

American Bird Fancier. Enlarged edition 50 

Adams, H. C. Favorite Soug Ba-ds 1.50 

Archer, Modern. Paper 15 

Bailey. Our Own BIkIs 1.50 

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Brown. Taxldcimy 1.00 

Canary Birds. New and Revised Edition. Paper, 50c. Cloth 75 

QOUes. Key to North Amercan Birds 10.00 

Cocker. Manual 1.50 

Edwards. Rabbits 1.25 

Coode and Atwater. Menhaden 2.00 

Holden. bookot Birds 25 

Lawn Tennis Hand Book ^o 

Packard. Guide to Smdy of Insacls 5.00 

Half Hour Insects 2.50 

— — Common liisects 1.50 

Practical Rabbit Keeper iso 

Swimming, Skating and Rinking 25 

Van Doren. Fishes of the East Atlantic Coast 1.50 

Warne. Angling. Boards 50 

Wilson. American Ornithology. 8 vols 18.00 

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HIII\*TI]\€}, SIIOOTI.lfQ, FISHIIV^}, ETC. 

Adirondacks Guide. Wallace 2.00 

Amateur Trapper. Boards 75 

Batty, J. H. How to Hunt ami Trap. 12in(/ I.50 

Practical Tnxidermy. 12ino ],50 

Barber. Crack Shot— the Rifleinairs Guide. 12pio 1.25 

BogardUS, Capt. Field, Cover, and Trap Sh()otinJ,^ 12mo 2.()() 

Bumstead. On the Wing 1.50 

Dead Shot, a Treatise on the Gim 1.25 

Farrow. How to Become a Crack Shot. 12mo 1,00 

Forester, F. Life and Writings— D. W. JiuUl. 2voinmes. 8vo 3.00 

Field Sports, 2 volumes. 8vo 4. 00 

Complete Manual for Young Sportsmen. 8vo 2.00 

American Game in its Season. 8vo 1.50 

CilderSleeve, H. A. Kifles and Markmanship. 12mo. 1.50 

Gloan. The Breecli-loader .- 1.25 

Gould, J. M. How to Camp Ont. 16nio 75 

Greener, W. W. Choke Bore Guns. 8vo 3.OO 

The Gun and its Development 2.50 

Gun, Rod, and Saddle. ' Ubiqne" .. 1.00 

Hal lock. Sportsman's Gazeleer and General Guide— A Treatise on all 
Game and Fish of North America. Instruction in Shooting, Fishin<r, 
Taxidermy, and Woodcraft, with Directory of Principal Game Ke- 

sorts and Maps. New and Revised Edition. 12in<) , 3.00 

Henderson, H. Practical Hints on Camplnir. 12ino 1.25 

Lewis, E. J. The American Sportsman. 8vo 2.50 

Murray. Adventures in the wilderness. 12mo 1.25 

Murphy, J. M. American Gamt; Bird Shooting. 12ino 2.00 

NewhOUSe. Trapper's Guide. 8vo...... 1,50 

Pistol, The— How to Use. l^mo .50 

Prescctt, C. E. Practical Hints on Rifle Practice witli Military 

Arm^ 50 

Roosevelt, R. B. Florida, and the Game Water Birds of the Atlan- 
tic Coast and Lakes of the United States. 12mo 2.00 

Samuels. Birds of New England and Adjacent states 4.00 

Shooting on the Wing. i6mo 75 

Smith, George Putnam. The Law of Field Sports 1.00 

Stonehenge. Rural Sports— The Standard Encyclopaedia of Field 

Sports, i^ morocco. 8vo... 5.OO 

Thrasher, H. Hunter and Trapper. 12mo 75 

Wingate, G. W. Manual for Rifle Practice. 16mo 1.50 

Woodcraft. "Nessmuck." 13mo 1.00 



12 O. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 



ARCHITECTURE, ETC. 

Allen, L. F Em'al Architecture 1.50 

American Cottages s.ou 

Ames. AIpliabeL^ . 1.50 

AtWOOd . Country and Suburban Houses 1 50 

Barn Plans and Out-Buildings i oo 

Beit. Carpenh-y Made Easy 5.00 

Bicknell. 5ottageandVilla Architecture 4 00 

Detail Cottage and Constructive Architecture 6.00 

> '■ Modern Arcbitectura! Designs and Details 10.00 

Public Buildings Now 2.50 

Street, Store, and Bank Fronts. Ntnv 2.50 

■ School-House and Church Architecture 2.50 

Stables, Out-buildings, Fences,<?tc 2.50 

Brown. Building, Table and Estimate Book 1.50 

Burn. Drawing Books, Architectural. Illlusirated and Ornamental. 

3 Vols. Each • , 'l.OO 

Cameron. Plasterer's Manual T5 

Camp. How Can I Learn Architecture 50 

Copley. Plain and Ornamental Alphabets 3 00 

Cottages. Hints on Economical Building 1.00 

CummingS. Architectural De-tails 6.00 

Elliott. Hand Book of Practical Landscapei.Gardening 1.50 

Eveleth. Scliool-House Architecture 4.00 

Fuller. Artistic Homes 3.50 

Cilmore, Q. A. Roads and street Pavements 2.50 

Gould. American Stuir-BnildeiVs Guide 2.50 

Carpenter's and Builder's Assistant 2.50 

Hodgson. Steel Square 1.00 

Holly. Art of Saw Filing 75 

Harney. Barns, Out-Buildings, and Fences. 4.00 

Hulme. Mathematical Drawing Instruments.. , 1.50 



0. JFDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 13 

HuSSey. Home Building 2 50 

National Cottage Architecture 4,00 

Homes for Home Builders. JustPubiisiied. Fniiyiiiust rated. I'.so 
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Lakey. Village and Oouiitry Houses 5 OO 

Modern House Painting 5.00 

DVionckton. National Carpenter and Joiner 5.OO 

National Stair-Bnilder 5,00 

Painter, Gilder^ and Varnisher's Companion iso 

Pal User. American Cottage Homes 3 00 

Model Homes _ 100 

TJsef ul Details 200 

Plummer. carpenters' and Builders' Guide , 75 

Powell. Foundations and Foniuiation Walls 2.00 

Reed. Cottage Houses 125 

House Plans for Every))ody 1.50 

Dwellings 3.O0 

Riddel I. Carpenter and Joiner Modernized 7.5O 

New Elements of Hand Railing 7.OO 

Lessons on Hand liailing for Learners 5.00 

Rural Church Architecture 400 

Scott. Beautiful Homes 2.50 

Tuthill. Practical Lessons in Architectural Drawing 2.50 

Weidenmann. Beautifying Country Homes. A superb quarto Vol. 10.00 

Woodward, cottages and Farm Houses 1,00 

Country Homes 1.00 

National Architect. Volumes 1 and 2. Each. 15.00 

Suburban and Country Houses , 1.00 




14 0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUi 





MISCELLANEOUS. 



Collection of Ornaments 2.00 

Common Sea Weeds 50 

Common Shells of the Seashore so 

Corson, Miss Juliet. Cooking School Text Book 1.25 

Twenty five Cent Dinners. New Edition. .25 

De Voe. Market Assistant 2.50 

Dussauce. On the Manufacture of "Vinegar 5.00 

Eassie. Wood and its Uses 1..50 

Eggleston. Koxy i.so 

Circuit Eider 1.50 

School Boy 1.00 

Queer Stories 1.00 

End of the World 1.50 

Mystery of Metropolisville 1.50 

Hoosier Schoolmaster 1.25 

Elliott, Mrs. Housewife. New and Revised Edition 1.25 

Ewing. Hand Book of Agriculture 25 

Ferns and Ferneries. Paper 25 

Fisher. Grain Tables 40 

Fowler. Twenty Years of Inside Life in Wall Street. ., 1.50 

Gardner. Cuniage Painters' Manual 1.00 

How to Paint 1.00 

Hazard. Bmrer Making 25 

Household Conveniences iso 

How to Detect the Adulterations of Food. Paper 25 

How to Make Candy so 

Leary. E'^ady Reckoner 25 

Myers. Havana Cigars 25 

Our Farmers' Account Book ■■ 100 

Parloa, Miss. CokBook i.so 

Ropp. Commercial Calciilntor 50 

Scribner. Lumber andLog-Book 35 



0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 15 

Ware. The Sugar Beet 

Weston , J . Fresh Water Aquariam. Paper'. ."....'/'[.'.'.'.'.,]','' ^ 25 

Weir, Harrison. EveryDay in the Country .^5 

Wlngate, Cen. C. W. Tl.rough the YellowstonJ PuVk i"^n 

Williams. Ladies' Fajicy Work ' Jg^ 

•: Evening Amusements ' " ^V-, 

■ Beautiful Homes ".." ■;;• "* zi 

Ladies' Needle Worli Joq 

Artistic Embroidery " "" '„ 

Wlllard. Practical Butter Book "..'.':.'.'.'..[ ""' int 

Practical Dairy Husbandry ;. " 3 ob 

Warne'S Useful Books. Boards. Withpi-ac'ticaliil'ustmVions- 

Ihe Orchard and Fruit Garden. By Elizabeth Watts 50 

Vegetables and How to Grow Them. By Elizabeth Watts 50 

Cattle and their Varieties "" "il 

The Dog and its Varieties *.'. .......... . * " ' 'S 

Flowers and Flower Garden. By Elizabeth Watts '"'""•" '^ *" \(i 

Hardy Plants for Little Front Gardens ' 5^ 

Poultry-An Original and Practical Guide to their Mai'ia'rremc'nt ' " 50 



By Capt. T. Griffith 
Tile Modern Gymnast. By Charles Spencer. 
Cattle and their Varieties and Manigement.. ,. 
The Horse and its Varieties and Management'.'. 
Sheep and its Varieties and Management [ 




16 0. JDDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 



Our Very Latest Publications. 

Through the Yellowstone Park on Horseback. 'By 

Gen. G. W. Wingatb .. . ,...,,. ... . 1.50 

Fly-Fishlng and Fly-Making. ByKEENE 1.50 

How to Handle and Educate Vicious HOrses. By 

O. R. Gleason ..... 1.00 

The Law Of Field Sports. By Geo. P. Smith 1.00 

Bridle Bits. A Treatise on Practical Ilorsemaiisliip. By Col. J. C. 

Batteusby ,. ., 1.00 

The Percheron Horse in America and France •• . 100 

Profits in Poultry. Useful and Oriiainental Breeds 1.00 

Cape Cod Cranberries. By James Webb. Paper .50 

How to Plant. By M. W. Johnson 50 

The American Merino for Wool and Mutton. By 

Stephen Po WEBS 1.75 



New and Revised Editions. 

HallOCk. Sportsman's Gazetteer 3.00 

Stewart, irrigation for the Farm, Garden and Orcliard 1.50 

Farm Implements and Machinery. ByTnoMAs 1.50 

£gg p^iriYI. By Stoddard. Cloth 50 

Play and Profit in My Garden i.so 

Silos and Ensilage 50 



Send Postal for Complete Catalogue of onr Pnblieations regarding 
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0. JUDD CO. DAVID W. JUDD, Pres't. 

751 BROADl¥Air NOW ¥ORK. 



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